Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth April 6, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
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Headline: Harvest for Omer Offering Turns Into Family Event
Headline: Tens of thousands attend mass Priestly Blessing in Old City of Jerusalem during Passover festival- PHOTOS
As soon as Passover ended, entire families, men women and children, gathered in a field in the Negev to harvest barley that would be used the next day by priests to recreate the omer offering of barley. The barley was prepared according to Torah law and presented as a wave offering in Jerusalem by priests in a ceremony that closely resembled what was once seen every year in Solomon’s Temple. The Temple Institute, the Women of the Temple, and the Nascent Sanhedrin came together to organize this communal offering. An omer is a sheaf of wheat gathered in the field. On the night of the 16th of Nisan, after Passover ended, the participants went out to the fields of Kibbutz Ruchama in the Negev to harvest the barley. The sheaves of grain were brought to Jerusalem where it was beaten, the chaff removed, and sifted through 13 sieves. Finally, the grains were roasted and ground into a coarse meal. Olive oil, specially prepared for temple use, was added, along with frankincense. The omer offering is a grain sacrifice wave offering, brought in the temple in Jerusalem. A Kohen of the priestly caste recreated this offering at a model of the altar erected for this purpose. A handful was then scooped out and burned. In the Temple, a male sheep was brought as a burnt offering, but this was not done at the reenactment.
April 14, 2017
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/86489/barley-harvested-omer-offering-photos/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/228136
Headline: Report: Hezbollah evacuating positions near Israel’s Golan Heights
Hezbollah forces have begun to evacuate territory near Syria’s Golan region, not far from the Israeli border, after the US State Department demanded that the Lebanese terror organization immediately leave the area, Syrian news agency Al-Ittihad reported Thursday. The report added that Hezbollah fighters began clearing their stronghold in the Qalamun Mountains nearly a week before the US military conducted airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air force on April 6. The US military operation was in response to a chemical attack allegedly carried out by government forces, which saw 78 people killed and over 550 wounded in the northwest town of Idlib last week. Al-Ittihad did not say why the militants left their positions on the eastern Syrian border region. According to a number of sources who talked to the Syrian publication, at least 300 Hezbollah fighters have abandoned 14 positions in the Quneitra area, which sits in near proximity to Israel’s Golan territory. The militants, according to sources, left with tanks, armored vehicles and heavy weapons as they made their way toward the Syrian capital of Damascus. “Five vehicles accompanied by a number of… machine guns crossed the border from Lebanon and we believe that there were senior figures from Hezbollah or senior Iranian officials,” the sources told the Syrian news website. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Tuesday addressed the threat the terrorist organization poses against the United States and its allies, demanding that they withdraw their forces and refrain carrying “on military operations in Syria in support of the [Assad] regime.”
April 13, 2017
Headline: Syria Accuses Israel and US of Supporting ISIS
Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari Wednesday accused Israel of providing direct support to the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) in Syria during a heated session at the U.N. Security Council. “The direct Israeli support to ISIL (Islamic State) through attacking Syrian army sites in Palmyra city on March 17, 2017, added fuel to the fire and made things worse,” said Jaafari, referencing a reported Israeli Air Force strike on a Hezbollah terrorist weapons convoy. Last month, Syrian anti-aircraft missile systems were activated in response to the alleged Israeli strike and caused Israel to utilize its Arrow missile defense system to intercept a Syrian missile, marking the system’s first operational use. Jaafari also accused Israel of providing medical aid to injured al-Qaeda terrorists. Since 2013, Israel has provided medical aid to victims of the Syrian Civil War who arrive for treatment at the Israeli border with Syria in the Golan Heights. The Syrian ambassador also accused the U.S. of aiding Islamic State and other terror groups, and claimed America “fabricated” the recent chemical attack on Syrian civilians to “rescue armed terrorist groups.” “This serious aggression had been plotted long in advance inside the secret rooms of intelligence agencies of Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Doha, Ankara, Amman, Washington, London and Paris,” said Jaafari.
April 14, 2017
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/86553/syria-accuses-israel-us-supporting-isis/
Headline: Russia Says Evidence Growing Syria Chemical Attack Was Staged
Headline: Russia, Iran and Syria issue warning to US
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a chemical-weapons attack in Syria that provoked U.S. missile strikes on the Middle Eastern country may have been orchestrated. “There’s growing evidence that this was staged,” Lavrov said at a Moscow news conference with his Iranian and Syrian counterparts on Friday. Publications including in the U.S. and the U.K. have highlighted “many inconsistencies” in the version of events in Syria’s Idlib province that was used to justify the American airstrikes, he said. Russia, Iran and Syria want an independent investigation and those opposed to the call “don’t have a clear conscience,” Lavrov said. Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that demanded the Syrian government cooperate with an inquiry into the suspected sarin-gas attack that killed dozens of people.
April 14, 2017
http://debka.com/newsupdatepopup/20362/Russia-Iran-and-Syria-issue-warning-to-US
Syria
Headline: US-backed forces launch new attacks on Daesh in Syria — statement
Headline: Errant Attack by US-led Coalition Kills 18 Allied Soldiers in Syria
Headline: Evacuations begin in four besieged Syrian towns
US-backed forces fighting the Daesh terror group in Syria launched a new phase of their offensive on Thursday, a statement said, but they have not yet begun to attack the militant group’s stronghold of Raqqa city in an apparent delay in the operation. The multiphased campaign by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance made up of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighting groups, was launched in November and aims ultimately to drive the extremists from Raqqa, their de facto Syrian capital. Officials in the Kurdish YPG militia, a powerful component of the SDF, said last month that assaults on Raqqa city itself would start in early or mid-April. But the fourth phase of the campaign aims to clear Daesh pockets from the countryside north of the city, the SDF statement said. It did not say when the assault on Raqqa itself would begin. “We aim to liberate dozens of villages in the Wadi Jallab area and the northern countryside… and clear the last obstacles in front of us to pave the way for the operation to liberate Raqqa city,” it said.
April 13, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/errant-attack-us-led-coalition-kills-allied-soldiers-syria/3808821.html
Headline:Syrian Kurds respond to Turkey’s offensive on Afrin, bomb army base
Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) have targeted positions of the Turkish army on the Syrian-Turkish border with heavy artillery, military sources reported on Thursday. “A main military base for the Turkish army in northern Syria was hit by YPG fire,” the YPG media office told ARA News. “The operation came in response to the recent Turkish attacks on Kurdish villages in Afrin district [northwest of Aleppo],” the source reported. At least two Turkish military vehicles were destroyed and several soldiers were killed in the attack, according to Kurdish officials. Turkey’s military forces launched an offensive on the Kurdish district of Afrin in Syria’s northwestern Aleppo Governorate two weeks ago, killing and wounding dozens of civilians, eyewitnesses and officials told ARA News.
April 13, 2017
http://aranews.net/2017/04/syrian-kurds-respond-to-turkeys-offensive-on-afrin-bomb-army-base/
Iraq
Headline: In battle for Mosul, new US strategy takes shape
The tactical assembly area for US forces south of Mosul is as nondescript as could possibly be. In a nearby field the M109 Paladin howitzers – mobile artillery that drives around on tank treads – nestle amid earthen berms. Their supply vehicles are dug in behind them. The field is full of mud, odd for northern Iraq, but it had been raining a lot in late March. Lt. Micah Thompson, a platoon leader, says “we have the capability to address all targets; the point of the Paladin is a mobile artillery system. The fight that we bring is the precision munition capability. We are able to program and set those fuses and provide those rounds downrange in rapid time in order to accomplish [our task].” He’s one of the recent generation of US Army soldiers serving in Iraq, and he’s enthusiastic about providing fire support to the Iraqi security personnel who are slowly clearing Mosul of Islamic State fighters. This is the tip of America’s spear in the battle against ISIS, but in contrast to previous US campaigns in Iraq, the Americans are letting the Iraqis set the tempo. Lt.-Col. John Hawbaker, a commander in the 73rd Cavalry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, joined the army in 1998 and served in Iraq in 2005-2006. He says ISIS represents the “same barbarism, evil and cruelty” that the US faced back then, but is “a much larger and conventional threat. We were doing counter-insurgency with US leadership, the difference now is the Iraqi Security Forces conduct a fight not as a counter-insurgency but against a conventional force.” This is a key difference in the US outlook. In 2006, Gen. David Petreaus played a role in crafting a US field manual on Counterinsurgency, later referred to as COIN, or counter-insurgency strategy.
April 14, 2017
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/In-battle-for-Mosul-new-US-strategy-takes-shape-486941
Turkey
Headline: Erdogan rules out federal system in Turkey after controversy
Headline: 5 ways the vote Sunday could change Turkey
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday ruled out introducing any federal system in Turkey, after an angry backlash to comments by an adviser from nationalists key to his success in this weekend’s referendum. Turks will decide on Sunday whether to approve boosting Erdogan’s powers under an executive presidency, which would also see the role of prime minister axed. Erdogan’s adviser Sukru Karatepe was accused this week of suggesting in an Ankara publication that, if approved, the changes could lead to a federal system in the country but the government said his comments were misunderstood. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim insisted the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was as dedicated to a unitary structure as the nationalists and vowed to resign if the changes led to such a system. The government is keen to assuage fears of nationalists who are crucial for Erdogan to win the referendum, which polls and experts say is hotly contested. Karatepe later told reporters that he would “never accept any federational or federal system in Turkey.”
April 14, 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1084556/middle-east
Headline: 2 killed in bomb attack in SE Turkey
Two people were killed in a bomb attack in Turkey’s southeast province of Van on Friday, Dogan News Agency reported. The handmade explosives placed in a culvert in the Catak district of Van left a soldier and a village guard dead, Dogan said. The explosive device was detonated by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, according to the report. An air operation launched by security forces to capture terrorists is going on in the area. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015 after a brief period of reconciliation.
April 14, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-04/14/c_136209802.htm
Iran
Headline: Reading Iran’s Reaction To US Missile Strikes In Syria
On the evening of Thursday April 6, Washington time, President Donald Trump ordered the US military to respond to the Assad regime’s recent use of chemical weapons which had “choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children.” In so doing, the US launched 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles at the Shayrat Airfield in Homs belonging to the Syrian government. The strikes, according to a Pentagon press statement, were delivered from two US destroyers stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean. According to a more recent Department of Defense evaluation, “20 percent of Syria’s operational aircraft” were wrecked by the strike. To date, international reactions have been somewhat predictable. US partners and allies in the Middle East, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, endorsed the kinetic action. Conversely, government officials from the Syrian Arab Republic and Islamic Republic of Iran admonished the move. Such censures nonetheless provide insight into Iran’s framing of the war in Syria, as well as the methods of argumentation Iran has long used to support the Assad regime. As always, vitriolic anti-Americanism featured prominently in Tehran’s diplomatic response. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, called the strike a “strategic mistake.” He also ominously warned that the US was about “to repeat their past mistakes” in the region. “Former American officials created DAESH or helped it, and current American officials are in a state of strengthening DAESH or groups like it,” he alleged.
April 14, 2017
Afghanistan
Headline: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan
Headline: At least 36 ISIS terrorists dead in massive US bombing
The US military dropped America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb on ISIS targets in Afghanistan Thursday, the first time this type of weapon has been used in battle, according to US officials. A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A MOAB is a 30-foot-long, 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition. President Donald Trump called it “another successful job” later Thursday. The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, stationed in Afghanistan and operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told CNN. Officials said the target was an ISIS cave and tunnel complex and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province, a remote area in the country’s east which borders Pakistan.] “The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space, which we did,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said later Thursday. The strike “targeted a system of tunnels and cave that ISIS fighters use to move around freely.” Afghanistan’s ambassador to the US, Hamdullah Mohib, told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that the bomb was dropped after fighting had intensified over the last week between US Special Forces and Afghan troops against ISIS.
April 14, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/afghanistan-isis-moab-bomb/index.html
Headline: US snubs 11-state Afghanistan peace conference, says Russia trying to ‘assert influence’
Washington failed to attend the latest international conference hosted by Moscow, where 11 nations discussed ways of bringing peace to Afghanistan. The US branded it a “unilateral Russian attempt to assert influence in the region.” Friday’s meeting is the latest in a series of similar events in the Russian capital that have grown from trilateral consultations between Russia, China, and Pakistan held in December of last year into talks involving the majority of the Afghan region’s powers. The latest included Russia, China, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. An invitation was sent to Kabul’s patron, America, but was rejected. “I think just to end it, we just felt that these talks – it was unclear to us what the purpose was,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday, in explaining the US’ absence. “It seemed to be a unilateral Russian attempt to assert influence in the region that we felt wasn’t constructive at this time,” he noted. Moscow responded by saying it “could not comprehend” the US’ reason for snubbing the gathering. Participants in the event reiterated their support for a peaceful transition in Afghanistan, while calling for Kabul to be supported in moving in that direction.
April 14, 2017
https://www.rt.com/news/384774-afghanistan-conference-moscow-us/
Sudan
Headline: World Food Program ‘horrified’ as South Sudan workers killed
Headline: British official claims South Sudan violence amounts to tribal genocide
The World Food Program said Friday it is “horrified” to learn that three of its South Sudan workers were killed this week in violence in the western town of Wau, as the country’s civil war continues under warnings of possible genocide. A statement from the U.N. agency said the three men had been contracted to work as porters and appear to have been killed Monday on their way to a WFP warehouse. “Two died of machete wounds and the third was shot,” the statement said. It did not give any details about the attackers. WFP Country Director Joyce Luma said she is “outraged,” and she called on South Sudanese authorities to hold the attackers accountable. Wau residents on Monday described to The Associated Press targeted ethnic killings by government soldiers that spread panic through the town. The U.N. mission in South Sudan said its workers saw the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital and said another 10 people were injured. Residents said soldiers singled out civilians of the Fertit and Luo ethnic groups in retaliation for a rebel attack on government forces.
April 14, 2017
Libya
Headline: Libyan rivals clash in neglected south
Libya’s southern desert, long neglected by central authorities, risks becoming an arena for score-settling between rival governments vying for clout across the war-torn country, analysts say. Clashes erupted last week as forces loyal to Libya’s eastern authorities battled to seize a key southern airbase from militias that back a United Nations-endorsed unity government. The offensive by the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by military strongman Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar threatened to trigger a broader conflict with forces allied to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). So far tensions between the two sides had been mainly limited to the country’s north. But last week, the LNA launched an offensive on the Tamenhant airbase on the outskirts of the city of Sebha. The most important airbase in the south, it is a base for the “Third Force,” one of several powerful pro-GNA militias from the western city of Misrata. Haftar’s LNA “wants to achieve a victory in the southern region of Fezzan to boost its position & GNA is mobilizing to prevent that,” analyst Mohamed Eljarh of the Atlantic Council tweeted.
April 14, 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1084566/middle-east
Headline: Pakistani Taliban emir calls for unity, jihad, and global caliphate
Mullah Fazlullah, the emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP), said that his group’s ultimate goal is “to implement the law of Allah on the Earth” and called on Muslims to unite and wage jihad to achieve that end. Fazlullah, one of the most extreme commanders in a group filled with extremists, also said that attempts made by Pakistan’s military intelligence service to break up the TTP have largely failed and his group has reorganized following a tumultuous period. Fazlullah made the statements in a video released yesterday by Umar Media, the propaganda arm of the TTP. Umar Media also provided an English language transcript of Fazlullah’s speech. He outlined the group’s primary goal in his opening statement. “The aim of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan [TTP] is to implement the law of Allah on the Earth of Allah. And this will be the result of our Jihad. For Islamic ideology we have to accord sacrifices. By the grace of Allah, those who believe that implementation and uprising of Shar’iah [Islamic law] is their actual goal and absolute ambition, know that the implementation of this Shar’iah is impossible without practicing Jihad and Jihad is impossible without unity,” Fazlullah said.
April 13, 2017
Headline: Tax Day protests: Anti-Trump marches planned nationwide to demand tax returns
Democratic lawmakers and liberal activists plan to ring in Tax Day with nationwide protests this weekend meant to pressure President Trump to release his tax returns — with organizers hoping for the biggest anti-Trump showing since January’s Women’s March. On Saturday, thousands are expected to attend ‘Tax Marches’ in approximately 150 cities, including several affiliated events overseas. “Whether people support him or not, [releasing his tax returns] is something that people think he should do. I think there is a chance something like this could move him,” said Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, one of the groups organizing the marches. The president’s supporters, however, see the marches — and the persistent tax return focus — as a waste of time. In Colorado Springs, Trump backers plan to hold a counter-protest on Saturday. For them, what is in Trump’s tax returns pales in comparison to what could be in his tax plan. “Their whole message is they want to see the president’s tax returns. I care far more about his policy than his tax returns,” Trevor Dierdorff, El Paso County Republican Party chairman, told the Colorado Springs Gazette. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, said during a recent House Ways and Means Committee hearing that the pressure on Trump to release his returns is a “political mission,” arguing the kind of bombshells Democrats are seeking wouldn’t even be in such documents. The protests, if nothing else, could make for a rowdy scene in cities across the country, reminiscent of the Women’s March on inauguration weekend.
April 14, 2017
Headline: Venezuela: 5 Dead as Anti-Government Protests Intensify
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in wealthy eastern Caracas amid a tropical downpour Thursday to support a protest movement that is gaining steam even as it turns more deadly. Venezuela officials confirmed earlier in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week. The public prosecutor’s office says it will investigate the death of 36-year-old Miguel Colmenares. He was shot at a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday. Gruseny Calderon was killed during the same protest. Congressman Alfonso Marquina says the 32-year-old protester was injured by rubber bullets that pierced his lung and liver. The protests have also claimed the lives of two college students and a 13-year-old. The opposition had planned protests in more than 300 municipalities for Thursday, with the aim of diluting the power of government security forces. But a tropical rainstorm suppressed turnout. The Caracas rally was peaceful until the end, when young men clashed with hundreds of riot police who lobbed tear gas to break up the crowd. As state security forces lean more heavily on tear gas, protesters have begun coming ready with goggles, vinegar-soaked rags and gas masks.
April 14, 2017
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuela-5-dead-anti-government-protests-intensify-n746496
Headline: US sends dozens of troops to Somalia, 1st time in decades
The US military is sending dozens of regular troops to Somalia in the largest such deployment to the Horn of Africa country in roughly two decades. The United States pulled out of Somalia after 1993, when two helicopters were shot down in the capital, Mogadishu, and bodies of Americans were dragged through the streets. The US Africa Command on Friday said this deployment is for logistics training of Somalia’s army, which is battling the extremist group al-Shabab. The US in recent years has sent some special operations forces and advisers to Somalia, and President Donald Trump recently approved an expanded military role there. It includes carrying out more aggressive airstrikes against al-Shabab. The country’s new Somali-American president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, last week declared a new offensive against the extremist group.
April 14, 2017
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4949299,00.html
Headline: Japan says North Korea may have missiles equipped with sarin gas
Headline: Report: US May Launch Preemptive Strike Against North Korea
Headline: First U.S.-Japan-S. Korea anti-submarine exercise conducted amid showdown
Headline: China: War could break out any moment over North Korea
Headline: US successfully test drops NUCLEAR gravity bomb
North Korea may have the capacity to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve gas, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday, amid concerns that the reclusive state could soon conduct its sixth nuclear test or more missile launches. “There is a possibility that North Korea already has a capability to deliver missiles with sarin as warheads,” Abe told a parliamentary session. Members of a Japanese doomsday cult killed 12 people and made thousands ill in 1995 in simultaneous attacks with sarin nerve gas on five Tokyo rush-hour subway trains. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have escalated over Pyongyang’s continued nuclear and missile testing program, with the United States warning it could take unilateral action and sending a navy carrier group to near the Korean peninsula in a show of force aimed at deterring more tests.
April 14, 2017
http://www.worldtribune.com/first-u-s-japan-s-korea-anti-submarine-exercise-conducted-amid-showdown/
http://debka.com/newsupdatepopup/20358/China-War-could-break-out-any-moment-over-North-Korea
Headline: Recession Alert: Government Revenues Suffer Biggest Drop Since The Financial Crisis
On the surface, today’s monthly budget statement was disappointing: in March the US Treasury brought in total receipts of $216 billion, below the $228 billion last March, versus outlays of a record $392 billion, resulting in a deficit of $176 billion, more than the $167 billion expected, and $68 billion more than the previous year. For the fiscal year through March 31, the total US budget deficit was $527 billion, compared to $459 billion on year ago. Declining government revenue and long-term costs associated with an aging population are expected to continue pushing up the deficit. Over the past 12 months, the deficit stood at $651.5 billion, compared with $460.6 billion a year ago, an increase of over 40% Y/Y. On a 12 month run-rate, the US deficit stood at 3.1% of GDP. A year earlier, that figure was a third less, or 2.2%. More troubling is that in March the US government had its biggest one month outlay ever, spending a record $392.8 billion, $57 billion or 17% higher than a year ago.
April 13, 2017
Headline: Congress Panics As US Oil Assets Could Fall Into Russian Hands If Venezuela Defaults
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA made principal and interest payments of $2.2 billion today, avoiding default yet again despite what Vice President Tareck El Aissami called a “ruthless economic war” being waged against the Maduro government. That’s the good news, the bad news is that PDVSA has $62 billion more in principal and interest due over the next few years And, as OilPrice.com’s Nick Cunningham details, that has members of Congress very nervous… If Venezuela defaults on its debt obligations, it could result in Russia taking control over U.S. refining assets, leading to more Russian “control over oil and gas prices worldwide,” which would “inhibit U.S. energy security, and undermine broader U.S. geopolitical efforts.” That is the warning from two members of Congress, Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) and Albio Sires (D-NJ). The two Congressmen sent a joint letter to the U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, requesting his attention on the matter. A bipartisan group of six U.S. Senators also requested a response from Secretary Mnuchin on the matter. They cite the fact that Russia’s government-backed oil company, Rosneft, gave Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, a $1.5 billion loan. As collateral, PDVSA offered up 49.9 percent of Citgo, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil company. Citgo owns three refineries in the U.S., along with pipelines and retail gas stations. The Congressmen are worried that if PDVSA defaults, Rosneft will seize the U.S.-based refineries.
April 13, 2017
Headline: UN: Cholera Spreading in Drought-stricken Somalia
United Nations and international aid agencies warn that cholera is spreading in drought-stricken Somalia as hunger grips that nation and the threat of famine inches closer. The World Health Organization reports more than 21,000 cases of cholera, including 533 deaths, in Somalia since the beginning of the year. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also reports that an outbreak of the deadly disease in the self-declared autonomous region of Somaliland has killed 28 people in just the last week-and-a-half, and hospitalized nearly 170 others. Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says the case fatality rate of cholera in Somalia is about 2.3 percent, with an emergency threshold of 1 percent. He says two regions, Middle Juba and Bakool, exceed those rates. “We have accumulative case fatality rates of Middle Juba, 14.1 percent and in Bakool, 5.1 percent. So, at least in one area, Middle Juba, 14 times the emergency threshold,” he said.
April 13, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/united-nations-cholera-spreading-drought-stricken-somalia/3808630.html
Headline: Egypt Coptic Church cuts back Easter celebrations after attacks
Headline: Christians most persecuted group in the world as vicious attacks grow
Egypt’s Coptic Church says it will cut back Easter celebrations after the two bomb attacks that killed at least 45 people last weekend. Church events are cancelled and only prayers will be held, it says. Egypt’s government imposed a three-month state of emergency following the bombings in Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta on Palm Sunday. Meanwhile, officials have named two of the suicide bombers who they say had links to militant cells. Easter celebrations on Saturday night would be limited to Masses to mourn the victims of the attacks, Bishop Emmanuel Ayad of Luxor was quoted by the state-run news agency Mena as saying. Decorations and the traditional handing out of sweets to children by the Coptic Pope will also be cancelled, AFP reports. The attacks on Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt’s population, raised security fears ahead of a visit to Cairo by Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, scheduled for 28 and 29 April.
April 14, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39592881
Headline: A dark matter ‘bridge’ holding galaxies together has been captured for the first time- ****CAUTION EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
The first image of a dark matter “bridge”, believed to form the links between galaxies, has been captured by astrophysicists in Canada. Researchers at the University of Waterloo used a technique known as weak gravitational lensing to create a composite image of the bridge. Gravitational lensing is an effect that causes the images of distant galaxies to warp slightly under the influence of an unseen mass, such as a planet, a black hole, or in this case, dark matter. These results show that the dark matter filament bridge is strongest between systems less than 40 million light years apart, and confirms predictions that galaxies across the Universe are tied together through a cosmic web of the elusive substance. “For decades, researchers have been predicting the existence of dark matter filaments between galaxies that act like a web-like superstructure connecting galaxies together,” said Mike Hudson, a professor of astronomy at the University of Waterloo in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. “This image moves us beyond predictions to something we can see and measure.” “By using this technique, we’re not only able to see that these dark matter filaments in the Universe exist, we’re able to see the extent to which these filaments connect galaxies together,” said co-author Seth Epps.
April 13, 2017
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/dark-matter-bridge
Headline: Cyclone Cook: Evacuations as storm lashes New Zealand
Heavy rain and strong winds are lashing parts of New Zealand as Cyclone Cook, called the worst storm in decades, sweeps across the North Island. States of emergency have been declared in the Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty, with landslips, flash flooding and downed power lines closing roads. Some coastal communities have been evacuated and thousands of homes left without power. The storm was expected to pass over the capital, Welllington, overnight. Cyclone Cook killed one person when it swept through the Pacific islands of New Caledonia earlier this week.
April 13, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39585868
Headline: Large asteroid to hurtle past Earth on April 19
An asteroid as big as the Rock of Gibraltar will streak past Earth on April 19 at a safe but uncomfortably close distance, according to astronomers. “Although there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid this size,” NASA said in a statement. Dubbed 2014-JO25 and roughly 650 metres (2,000 feet) across, the asteroid will come within 1.8 million kilometres (1.1 million miles) of Earth, less than five times the distance to the Moon. It will pass closest to our planet after having looped around the Sun. 2014-J25’s will then continue on past Jupiter before heading back toward the centre of our Solar System. Smaller asteroids whizz by Earth several times a week. But the last time one at least this size came as close was in 2004, when Toutatis — five kilometres (3.1 miles) across — passed within four lunar distances.
April 14, 2017
https://www.yahoo.com/news/large-asteroid-hurtle-past-earth-april-19-151316753.html
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~click the photo to see ALL the maps of the large earthquakes for the current year~
Headline: What’s shaking? 
List & map of USGS Earthquakes~Click the shaking house~