Watchman Newsletter

Mayor: Quake hit city ‘like an iceberg’

New Zealand Herald (Link) - Jarrod Booker (September 4, 2010)

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker is thankful there has been no loss of life but there had been considerable damage across the city and outlying areas.

The city has been left devastated after a massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck 30km west of the city at 4.35am this morning.

The quake was at a depth of 33km and was centered near Darfield, and has left large parts of the area without power, water or telephones.

Mr. Parker said he did not want to overstate the level of damage “but I think it’s like an iceberg. There is, in a sense, below the visible line significant structural damage.”

“There would not be a house or a family in our city that has not in some way had damage done to their person and or their property,” Mr. Parker said.

“Our thoughts are with our people.

“We know that a lot of people will be very nervous, deeply disturbed.”

Scientists have described this morning’s earthquake as the most significant since the 1931 magnitude 7.8 Hawke’s Bay earthquake.

5 Doomsday Scenarios for the U.S. Economy

Yahoo! Finance (Link) - The Atlantic - Derek Thompson, Daniel Indiviglio (September 4, 2010)

It’s been a brutal summer for the economy. The housing sector, like a balloon batted in the air one last time by the government credit, resumed its inevitable fall. Economic growth slowed to a lead-footed 1.6 percent, and job growth is even more anemic. Meanwhile, consumers are cranky, the trade gap is gaping.

Most signs point to a slow and steady recovery, but what if the pessimists are right, again? What if the United States isn’t in the slow-lane to recovery, but rather on the precipice of another decline -- a double dip?

To see where this re-recession might begin, my colleague Dan Indiviglio and I imagined five financial earthquakes, each with a single epicenter: housing, consumers, toxic assets, Europe, and the debt. The following five scenarios are listed in order of likelihood.

Hamas to launch ‘more effective attacks’ on Israel

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Khaled Abu Toameh (September 3, 2010)

Thirteen Gaza militant groups have joined forces to launch a wave of attacks against Israel, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Hamas reportedly announced after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas launched peace talks that the 13 groups would step up “more effective attacks” against Israel.

When asked if the renewed attacks would include suicide bombings, the Hamas spokesman reportedly answered: “All options are open.”

Also on Thursday, Hamas condemned the launch of direct talks, saying its goal is to “liquidate” the Palestinian cause, and accusing Abbas of allowing Israel to build settlements in the West Bank and denying refugees’ “right of return.”

Earlier this week, Hamas claimed responsibility for two attacks on Israelis: one, which killed four, and another that injured two. Both were shootings that took place in the West Bank.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that Abbas does not have a mandate to negotiate with Israel, and the Palestinians would not recognize any agreement.

Blaze Shakes Oil Industry

Wall Street Journal (Link) - Leslie Eaton, Jeffrey Ball & Stephen Power (September 3, 2010)

The fire that engulfed an oil and gas platform Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico heightened pressure on the energy industry, which is battling greater regulation and a deep-water drilling ban.

The accident on Mariner Energy Inc.’s shallow-water platform sent 13 workers tumbling into the ocean, but there were no casualties and little or no oil appears to have been spilled.

But the towering column of smoke in the Gulf, 245 miles from where the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, provoked an outcry from environmental groups and politicians in Washington already skeptical of offshore drilling.

And it complicated the energy industry’s effort to portray BP PLC’s massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a fluke that shouldn’t have provoked a drilling moratorium, some energy experts said.

Kevin Book, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners LLC, a consulting firm with many energy clients, said that another accident in the Gulf, albeit minor compared with the April blowout, could prompt the Democratic Congress to push for greater changes.

Certain lawmakers’ perceptions “that oil and gas production is safe is not affirmed by this disaster,” he said. “And worse, the idea that regulation is adequate is definitely not affirmed.”

Indonesian volcano erupts again

Breitbart (Link) - AFP (September 3, 2010)

An Indonesian volcano spewed ash thousands of metres into the air Friday in its most violent eruption since rumbling back to life earlier this week for the first time in 400 years.

Thousands of people have fled their homes since the 2,460-metre (8,100-foot) Sinabung in northern Sumatra started to erupt on Sunday after centuries of inactivity.

“The volcano erupted at 04:38 am which has lasted for 13 minutes and sending a column of ash as high as 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) into the air. This is the biggest eruption,” government volcanologist Agus Budianto told AFP.

“We recorded continuous tremors since 7:00 pm Thursday that indicated an intense magma movement inside the volcano,” he said.

Police had evacuated people from the danger zone in a six-kilometre (four-mile) radius from the volcano peak.

“We’re afraid that some locals had returned back to their village from emergency shelters,” he said.

Budianto said the eruption was felt about eight kilometres (five miles) away.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity. It has more active volcanoes than any other country.

US sees 54,000 jobs lost in August

BBC News (Link) (September 3, 2010)

The US economy shed another 54,000 jobs in August, the third month in a row that jobs have been lost, Labor Department figures have shown.

As a result of the overall fall in job numbers, the unemployment rate rose to 9.6%, from 9.5% in July.

However, analysts welcomed news that the the private sector had created a better-than-expected 67,000 jobs.

President Barack Obama described the figures as “positive, but not nearly good enough.”

He also said he would announce next week a series of proposals designed to create jobs and boost economic growth.

New jobs

The Labor Department also revised its figures for the previous two months.

Job losses in July were revised down from 131,000 to 54,000, while those in June were revised from 221,000 to 175,000.

The overall loss of jobs in August was because of a fall in government employment.

Iran’s president says Israel ‘can be removed from the world’

New York Post (Link) (September 3, 2010)

Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the people of the Middle East are “capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene” in an annual Palestinian solidarity day address in Tehran.

“If the leaders of the region do not have the guts, then the people of the region are capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene,” he said as the crowd chanted “Death to America! Death to Israel!”

Ahmadinejad said that direct peace talks, which Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas relaunched with Israel in Washington on Thursday after a 20-month hiatus, were “doomed” to fail.

“What do they want to negotiate about? Who are they representing? What are they going to talk about?” the Iranian president asked of the Palestinian leadership.

“Who gave them the right to sell piece of Palestinian land? The people of Palestine and the people of the region will not allow them to sell even an inch of Palestinian soil to the enemy. The negotiations are stillborn and doomed,” he added.

Iran is implacably opposed to the new peace talks and has given strong support to the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza and which carried out two shooting attacks against Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in the run-up to their relaunch that killed four and wounded two.

Another West Bank shooting: 2 Israelis hurt

YNet News (Link) - Aviel Magnezi, Hanan Greenberg, Ronen Medzini & Ali Waked (September 2, 2010)

Terror returns to West Bank: Two Israelis wounded after shots fired at their vehicle east of Ramallah Wednesday night. Army spokesman: Victims managed to get out of vehicle, hid in nearby wadi before calling for help.

An Israeli couple was wounded Wednesday night in a West Bank shooting attack after Palestinian terrorists opened fire at an Israeli vehicle traveling in the Ramallah area.

The shooting victims were identified as Jordan Rift Valley residents Shira and Moshe Morano.

Hamas’ military wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s shooting attack. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority security forces continued a wave of arrests targeting Hamas members in the West Bank.

The two shooting victims in Wednesday’s attack were a man, who sustained moderate wounds, and a woman, who was lightly hurt - both in their 30s. Magen David Adom officials said the wounded man sustained leg injuries, while the woman suffered from blows as result of the vehicle overturning.

The New Old World Order

National Review Online (Link) - Victor Davis Hanson (September 2, 2010)

The post–Cold War New World Order is rapidly breaking apart. Nations are returning to the ancient passions, rivalries, and differences of past centuries.

Take Europe. The decades-old vision of a united pan-continental Europe without borders is dissolving. The cradle-to-grave welfare dream proved too expensive for Europe’s shrinking and aging population.

Cultural, linguistic, and economic divides between Germany and Greece, or Holland and Bulgaria, remain too wide to be bridged by fumbling bureaucrats in Brussels. NATO has devolved into a euphemism for American expeditionary forces.

Nationalism is returning, based on stronger common ties of language, history, religion, and culture. We are even seeing the return of a two-century-old European “problem”: a powerful Germany that logically seeks greater political influence commensurate with its undeniable economic superiority.

Irreconcilable differences?

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Herb Keinon & Khaled Abu Toameh (September 1, 2010)

As Israel and the Palestinians are set to relaunch direct negotiations on Thursday, the sides will lay out their positions on the core issues. What follows is a scorecard of where each side stands on these issues: borders, security, refugees and Jerusalem.

ISRAEL

BORDERS While the Palestinians have demanded that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu acknowledge that the starting point for a discussion on borders is the 1967 lines with mutually agreed upon adjustments, Netanyahu has consistently refused to do so.

His position is that UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted after the Six Day War, does not require a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, more exactly called the 1949 armistice lines. Instead, Netanyahu argues that Israel must have defensible borders, something that in his mind is incompatible with a full withdrawal to the 1967 lines.

Regarding settlements, unlike previous governments, where government spokesmen made clear that any agreement would necessitate a complete removal of the settlements in the territories that will become a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has been careful not to talk about the need to uproot settlements.

There are some key members in his inner circle, moreover, who believe that in a future peace agreement, Jews should be able to live in a future Palestinian state, just as there is an Arab minority in the Jewish one.

Barak to Haaretz: Israel ready to cede parts of Jerusalem in peace deal

Haaretz (Link) - Ari Shavit (September 1, 2010)

Ahead of start of direct peace talks in Washington, Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods will be part of a Palestinian state; a ‘special regime’ to govern holy sites.

Ehud Barak has always vacillated between peace and security, dovishness and hawkishness, left wing and right wing. Even when he left south Lebanon, offered the Golan Heights to Hafez Assad and the Temple Mount to Yasser Arafat, he didn’t do this as a bleeding heart. He always spoke forcefully, talked about the importance of sobriety. He always spoke about how Israel must survive in a jungle. It must do so even now, on the eve of the peace summit in Washington.

This time, however, Barak is surprisingly - even unusually - optimistic. Perhaps it is because he contributed quite a bit to the summit’s unveiling. Maybe it is due to the fact that the summit is his political lifejacket. The defense minister believes in the 2010 peace summit even more than the principals taking part in it.

These past few weeks have been volatile, between the Galant document affair, the appointment of a new chief of staff, the meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah and the sit-down with Mahmoud Abbas. And perhaps more than anything else, Barak was feverishly preoccupied with trying to push Netanyahu across the Rubicon, trying to convince him that there is no choice, trying to convert Benjamin Netanyahu from Yitzhak Shamir to Menachem Begin. Did he succeed?

Banks forced to write off £40m a day in family debt

Daily Mail UK (Link) - Becky Barrow (September 1, 2010)

Cash-strapped families are being overwhelmed by debts they can never afford to repay, figures revealed yesterday.

Between April and June banks and building societies were forced to ‘write off’ £3.5billion, around £40million every day, the largest amount since records began.

The alarming Bank of England figures highlight the nightmare facing millions who borrowed money before the credit crunch to fund a lifestyle they could not afford.

The largest chunk of write-offs - a record £2.1billion - was credit card debt, with many spending more on the High Street in a day than they earn in a month.

A further £1.2billion came from overdrafts, personal loans and hire purchase agreements. Just £184million was from ‘bad’ mortgages.

Before the credit crunch struck in 2007 the bill for write-offs, where lenders accept they will never be repayed, came to just £1.9billion.

Hezbollah car bombs on our border

The Washington Times (Link) - Rep. Sue Myrick (September 1, 2010)

An indictment was handed down Aug. 30 by the Southern District Court of New York that shows a connection between Hezbollah - the proxy army of Iran and a designated terrorist organization - and the drug cartels that violently plague the U.S.-Mexico border.

In short, a well-known international arms dealer was trying to orchestrate an arms-for-drugs deal in which cocaine from FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which works with Mexican drug cartels to take cocaine into America - would be traded for thousands of weapons housed by a Hezbollah operative in Mexico.

This most recent case brings up several questions: Why would a member of Hezbollah be in Mexico? Why would Hezbollah need thousands of weapons in Mexico? Why are members of Hezbollah willing to work with FARC? Perhaps to exchange weapons for drugs? If Hezbollah has guns in Mexico and wants drugs, isn’t it logical to assume that it is trading with more accessible Mexican drug cartels?

This is just the most recent incident in which it’s clear that Hezbollah may have a presence in Mexico and along our southern border. There have been more incidents - which have been ignored by the Obama administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

Sheriff: Mexican Cartels Control Parts of Arizona

Newsmax (Link) - Jerry Seper and Matthew Cella (September 1, 2010)

The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.

The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.

They warn travelers that they are entering an “active drug and human smuggling area” and they may encounter “armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed.” Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to “use public lands north of Interstate 8” and to call 911 if they “see suspicious activity.”

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.

“Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona,” he said. “They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.

Hints Of Change In The World Monetary System

The Wall Street Journal (Link) - Michael Casey (September 1, 2010)

Ever since its inception 66 years ago, the International Monetary Fund has fancied itself at the center of the global economy.

But only now does the prospect of a multilateral monetary authority providing stability to the international financial system seem even remotely possible. That’s because for the first time in decades there are legitimate uncertainties surrounding the one institution that does play that role: the U.S. dollar.

In that context, a couple of recent IMF-related announcements are more important than they normally would be.

On Monday, the IMF said it would dramatically increase lending to a wide array of developing countries through a new “precautionary credit line” under which they would pre-qualify for loans to be drawn upon in a crisis.

Then on Tuesday, South Korea, which will host the Group of 20 nations summit in November, said it would no longer keep its proposal for a global system of currency swaps on the agenda of that meeting. Instead, it would seek a new role for the IMF for containing global financial turmoil--in effect, endorsing the IMF’s alternative plan for a “global stabilization mechanism,” which would be available to groups of countries.

Palestinian kills 4 Israelis on eve of peace talks

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Mark Lavie (August 31, 2010)

Palestinian gunmen opened fire Tuesday on an Israeli car in the West Bank and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Mideast peace talks in Washington. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility.

Assailants firing from a passing car riddled the vehicle with bullets as it traveled near Hebron — a volatile city that has been a flash point of violence in the past. Some 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the city amid more than 100,000 Palestinians.

One of the victims was pregnant, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Israel’s national rescue service said the victims were two men and two women, and Israeli media said everyone in the car was killed.

Video broadcast live on Israel TV late Tuesday showed a white Subaru station wagon standing at an angle at the side of a road, its windows shot out and its doors dotted with bullet holes. The car was flanked by army and police vehicles and dozens of soldiers.

The attackers fled and Israeli forces set up roadblocks and carried out searches to try to catch them.

About 3,000 people joined a rally in Gaza to celebrate the attack. Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida was among them and told The Associated Press: “The Qassam Brigades announces its full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron.”

A Bushel of Wheat for a Penny Part 3: Hyperinflation and its Effect on Cultures

Koinonia House (Link) - Steve Elwart, IDB Folio Specialist (August 31, 2010)

In part one of this series, we covered the difference between fiat and commodity money. As countries moved toward a fiat currency, the money supply increased and started to lose value. Part two of the series explored the rise of the central banks. It covered how central banks came into being and how they contributed to the destruction of a nation’s currency by creating a false business boom, then the final economic collapse.

This article, the third and last of the series, will cover the endgame of an irresponsible fiscal policy, hyperinflation. Economist Ludwig von Mises warned us in 1912:

The [business] boom produces impoverishment. But still more disastrous are its moral ravages. It makes people despondent and dispirited. The more optimistic they were under the illusory prosperity of the boom, the greater is their despair and their feeling of frustration. The individual is always ready to ascribe his good luck to his own efficiency and to take it as a well-deserved reward for his talent, application, and probity. But reverses of fortune he always charges to other people, and most of all to the absurdity of social and political institutions. He does not blame the authorities for having fostered the boom. He reviles them for the inevitable collapse. In the opinion of the public, more inflation and more credit expansion are the only remedy against the evils which inflation and credit expansion have brought about.¹

Mises is warning us about the same thing that the Holy Spirit through Paul cautions of in the Book of Romans. In Romans, Paul writes of the importance of a man’s faith, rather than his works. When man takes the center of his being away from God, he tends to attribute his success to his own efforts and his failures to others.

U.S. Banks Post $21.6B Profit as ‘Problem’ Lenders Rise

Bloomberg (Link) - Phil Mattingly (August 31, 2010)

U.S. lenders posted their biggest quarterly profit in almost three years, even as the number of banks at risk of failure rose to 11 percent of insured institutions, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

Bank-industry profits totaled $21.6 billion in the three- month period that ended June 30, an increase from $18 billion in the first quarter, the FDIC said today in its quarterly report on industry performance.

“The economic recovery that began last year is beginning to be reflected in the rising earnings and improving credit quality,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a briefing. “Given economic uncertainties, we believe all banks should continue to exercise caution and maintain strong reserves,” she said.

As the largest banks show improvement in earnings and credit quality, the FDIC’s “problem” bank list reached its highest level since 1992 amid slowing recovery from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the agency said.

The confidential list had 829 banks with $403 billion in assets at the end of the second quarter, a 7 percent increase from the 775 included in the first quarter, the FDIC said.

Syria reportedly signs pact with Hizbullah

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - AP (August 30, 2010)

The Syrian army signed a defense alliance with Hizbullah, a Kuwaiti paper reported on Monday.

According to the report in Al-Rai, in case of war, the two will split a “bank” of targets in Israel, and Syrian radars will supply Hizbullah operatives with intelligence on the location of Israeli aircraft, to assist Hizbullah in aiming anti-aircraft weapons.

The alliance radically changes the balance of power in the North, because it means in any future confrontation the IDF will be faced with attacks from both the northern and northeastern borders.

The IDF was surprised by Hizbullah’s level of organization during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Syrian assistance in intelligence gathering would give the Shi’ite organization a technological advantage that would bring it even closer to the level of an organized military.

During the 2006 war, Israel warned Syria not to intervene, and it avoided clashing with the IDF. According to the new pact, each of the parties will rush to assist the other in case of confrontation with Israel.

In Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad urged Lebanon’s leader to support Hizbullah and maintain calm in the country.

Immigrating out of fear

YNet News (Link) - Danny Adino Ababa (August 30, 2010)

In last half year, faced with rising anti-Semitism, increasing number of Turkish Jews immigrating to Israel. Recent attempts made by Istanbul mayor to quell fears have not mitigated concerns. ‘We are afraid,’ says Turkish immigrant.

About a week ago, Turkish Jews invited about 200 Muslims to break the Ramadan fast at the main synagogue in Istanbul. The response was overwhelming, and even Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas, a supporter of the Jews, was present at the event.

“I have many Jewish friends even back from my studies,” he said to those present. “The recent events are not only difficult for Israel, but also for us Turks. I ask of you to tell the Israelis to return to our country. It is a mistake to think that the Turks will not accept the Israelis with cordiality.”

Topbas’ warm words on Turkish Jewry’s contributions to his country did not mitigate the concerns of the Jews present. “We all live in fear,” said one of them in the presence of the distinguished guest. “The street is affected by what happens in politics, and we are on the brink of desperation from life here. We love Turkey, but will not be able to live so long in fear.”

There are currently 17,000 Jews living in Turkey. Most of them live in Istanbul and Ankara, with smaller concentrations in Izmir, Adana, Bursa, and a number other smaller cities.

PA Religious Affairs Minister Threatens War over Jerusalem

Israel National News (Link) - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (August 30, 2010)

The Palestinian Authority religious affairs minster, a week before peace talks in Washington, warned of war if Jerusalem is not “returned” to “its owners. And we are its owners.”

With PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the audience, Mahmoud Al-Habbash declared in his Friday sermon, “Jerusalem can ignite a thousand and one wars,” according to a translation supplied by Palestinian Media Watch.

Unless Jerusalem “becomes the capital of the Palestinian people, there is no peace,” he warned. “The term ‘war’ will not be erased from the lexicon...as long as Jerusalem is occupied.

“If Jerusalem is dishonored, if Jerusalem is disgraced, if [Jerusalem] is lost, it may leave the door open to all possibilities of struggle, all possibilities of war.

“Jerusalem is not just a city. Al-Aqsa is not just a mosque. Jerusalem is the key to peace…. Unless Jerusalem will be Palestinian, as it was throughout history, the capital of the Palestinian state and the capital of the Palestinian people, the place which is the object of heartfelt longing and which all Muslims aspire to reach; unless Jerusalem is like that way, there is no peace. There is no peace without Jerusalem. There is no stability without Jerusalem.”

Fayyad: PA will be prepared to establish state in a year

YNet News (Link) - Ali Waked (August 30, 2010)

Palestinian PM says second year of his plan will focus on separation of powers, transparency, strengthening rule of law, fighting corruption; calls on public to back necessary measures before establishment of ‘our own state.’

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday presented his plan for the second year of the establishment of Palestinian Authority institutions.

According to Fayyad’s document, the Palestinians will have completed the bulk of the changes deemed necessary for the establishment of an independent state within a year.

The document, titled “Towards Liberty,” was presented a year after Fayyad drafted his previous paper, in which he declared that a Palestinian state would be founded within two years. That document stressed the importance of the “popular resistance” against Israel.

The Palestinian PM stressed that the plan’s second year will focus on such issues as separation of powers, transparency, bolstering the rule of law and completing the establishment of government bodies.

Record number in government anti-poverty programs

USA Today (Link) - Richard Wolf (August 30, 2010)

Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand.

More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That’s up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007.

“Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record,” says Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates, which surveys states for Kaiser Family Foundation.

The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. “Private physicians are already indicating that they’re at their limit,” says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years.

Egypt urges EU to bolster U.S.-led Mideast peace bid

Reuters (Link) -  Felix Bate, Yasmine Saleh, & Brian Love (August 30, 2010)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Europe on Monday to throw its weight behind U.S.-led efforts to secure a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.

Mubarak, whose country in 1979 became the first Arab state to strike a peace deal with Israel, discussed the matter with French President Nicolas Sarkozy before heading to Washington this week for the first direct negotiations in 20 months.

“The American administration needs strong backing from the European Union for the peace process to continue,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are due to meet President Barack Obama on September 1, according to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and launch direct negotiations the following day.

Sarkozy said Europe planned to further promote the push for peace at a Euro-Mediterranean summit planned for November 20 in Barcelona, Spain, where key leaders from the Middle East would be present.

“After months of stalemate, a hope exists. This chance must be seized,” Sarkozy said.

Indonesian volcano wakes up after 400 years

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - AP (August 29, 2010)

A volcano in western Indonesia spewed hot lava and sand high into the sky early Sunday in its first eruption in 400 years.

Government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name, said Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province started rumbling a few days ago and the minor morning eruption has mostly stopped.

It sent sand and ash up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) high but lava only moved near the crater. It caused no major damage “but only dust covered plants and trees,” he said.

He said Mount Sinabung last erupted in 1600, so observers don’t know the volcano’s eruption pattern and are monitoring it closely for more activity.

Evacuations on the volcano’s slopes started Friday at the first signs of activity. Up to 10,000 people who fled are staying in government buildings, houses of worship and other evacuation centers in two nearby towns.