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End times writers such as Hal Lindsay and Timothy LaHaye make much of Gog and Magog, the archetypal enemies of God. End times publications seem to be making lots of money for some people as the expense of good biblical exegesis, so it is time that we look into the matter of Gog and Magog. These people groups, named in the Table of Nations (Gen. 10), have incited the imagination and entered into the arena of modern fiction and enduring legend. Legends surrounding Gog and Magog are found associated with countries as distant as Russia and Denmark, and with the...

Russia’s state exporter of weapons, Rosoboronexport is completing negotiations to ship to China up to 50 Su-33 jet fighters for a total worth of $2.5 billion. If the deal is ever clinched, it will be the second biggest contract for export of Russia’s armaments. Till late this year, China will buy in Russia two Su-33 jet fighters on trial for the aircraft carrier that is currently constructed. The deal value is around $100 million, sources close to negotiations said. Bound by the very tough confidential agreements on military cooperation, Rosoboronexport doesn’t comment on the talks. But the sources say the...

WESTERN countries are fighting World War III and it would last a generation, former head of Israel's Mossad spy network, Efraim Halevy, said in Melbourne yesterday. Mr Halevy, who ran Israel's intelligence agency between 1998 and 2002, said a major terror attack was possible in Australia. But he said the public didn't appear to realise the seriousness of the threat. "The threats today are aimed at destroying the whole way of life in democratic societies . . . of turning back the wheel more than 1000 years," Mr Halevy said. The security adviser to former prime minister Ariel Sharon and...

CVN-77 to be Christened on October 7th, 2006 From the Northrop Grumman site. On Saturday, October 7, 2006, Northrop Grumman Newport News will christen the nation’s 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, George H. W. Bush (CVN 77). The ship’s namesake and 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, is scheduled to attend the ceremony along with his wife Barbara and their daughter, Doro Bush Koch, Mrs. Koch also serves as the ship’s sponsor and will do the traditional honor of breaking a bottle of American sparkling wine across the ship’s bow during the ceremony. Employees of...

I don't watch television shows like the one Rosie O'Donnell is on but I did see a replay of her saying that radical Christianity is just as dangerous as radical Islam. First of all, I don't know what Ms. O'Donnell is referring to when she says radical Christianity. When compared to radical Islam it would have to mean that there is a sect of Christians who hates and persecutes every other religion in the world. A group who straps explosives to their bodies and blows up innocent women and children. They would have to sacrifice their sons and daughters as...

The Rising Sea Dragon in Asia 2006 Update I have been keeping a major web site up regarding the growth of the Chinese NAvy for the last four years. This is the 2006 Update. Throughout 2005 and 2006 the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has continued its unprecedented modernization and buildup, working on and procuring twelve seperate classes of major combatants. Increasing numbers of new guided missile destroyers, guided missile frigates, fast attack craft, very modern and quiet diesel/electric attack submarines, nuclear attack submarines, nuclear ballistic missile submarines, logisitic support craft, amphibious assault craft, and the infrastructure and aircraft...

TEL AVIV — Hamas intends to adopt the Hizbullah model in the Palestinian war against Israel. Officials said the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority would facilitate intensified missile attacks as well as infiltration of Israel. They said Hamas has been impressed by the Hizbullah war in Lebanon. "The accent will be on better equipment and training," an official said. "We expect to see anti-tank missiles, roadside bombs and greater use of tunnels to infiltrate Israel." Officials said Hamas has been smuggling a range of rockets into Israel. They said they included the Soviet-origin BM-21 Grad. "They are smuggling Katyushas and Grad missiles...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said recently that “we are in the early stages of what I would describe as the third world war.”  Citing fresh examples of North Korean belligerency, Islamic terrorism in India, ongoing fighting in Afghanistan, insurgency in Iraq, support for Hezbollah terrorism by Iran and Syria, the related fighting between Israel and Lebanon, and the arrests of terrorists aspiring to murder Americans, Gingrich analogized the current state of affairs to the Great War and World War II.  In politics, the term “war” is sometimes used metaphorically in ways that do not shed precise light on the...

How much is in a serving? "This guy is overweight," she says, explaining that this is because he eats too much fast food and drinks cola. "And guess what happens?" she asks. "Inside his body there are lots of problems." At a table, a dozen or so refugees - most of them from Africa - sit and nod. Some smile and chat among themselves. They appear to get the picture. This workshop on how to eat American food responsibly is part of an Illinois state-funded programme to improve the nutrition of refugees who are being re-settled in the land of...

World briefing Irresistible rise of the dictators' club Simon Tisdall Tuesday June 6, 2006 Guardian Tony Blair's promotion of shared global values and inclusive institutions in his Georgetown speech last month took little account of the rise and rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Few may yet have heard of it. But out of the east comes a radically different paradigm for 21st-century international organisation, short on idealism and long on hard-headed self-interest. The "universal" principles of "liberty, democracy and justice" lauded by Mr Blair are hardly its driving force. Founded by China, the five-year-old SCO groups together like-minded authoritarian...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 7/27/06 - Beirut, Bint Jbail, Lebanon, Byblos, Cairo, Dushanbe, Fassuta, Israel, Gaza City, Haifa, Khiam, Kiryat Bialik, Mogadishu, Multan, Nabatiyeh, Paris, Pittsburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Soer, Tehran, Tyre, Zefta BREAKING: Khiam - Precise Israeli air retaliation against missles coming from UN-protected terrorists "safe" house BREAKING: Beirut - Jordanian military planes arrive BREAKING: Soer - Precise Israeli air retaliation BREAKING: Tyre - Precise Israeli air retaliation BREAKING: Tyre - UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) ordered to remain in place as human shields by Annan BREAKING: Zefta - Precise Israeli air...

HUGO CHÁVEZ, the ardently anti-American President of Venezuela, arrives in Russia today to sign a billion-dollar arms deal that has infuriated and alarmed the US. The self-styled leftist revolutionary will sign an agreement with President Putin to buy 30 Sukhoi Su30 fighter jets and 30 military helicopters worth $1 billion (£540 million). The two leaders will also discuss plans to build two Kalashnikov factories in Venezuela — to add to the 100,000 Kalashnikov AK103 assault rifles that Venezuela has bought from Russia in the past year. The arms deals — and the visit by Señor Chávez — are the latest...

Oracle Commentaries 7/22/2006 Urgent Intelligence Update UNCOVERED: RUSSIAN-SYRIAN-IRANIAN AXIS For students of Bible prophecy, even the title of this communiqué should set off alarm sirens. I just received some electrifying intelligence data. First, from the Debka-Net-Weekly’s briefing. And second, from some personal intelligence sources (I carefully guard) that confirm Debka’s report. Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altered the balance of power in the entire Middle East. Russia’s part in the pact has been kept relatively secret for a long time. But the facts reveal a long steady Russian commitment...

London: The head of state-owned Sukhoi aircraft manufacturing holding said Tuesday he hoped the talks on the possible sales of Su aircraft to Venezuela would yield positive results. "We will be speaking later about any concrete results but I believe that they [the results] will be positive," Mikhail Pogosyan said at the 2006 Farnborough International Airshow. A source in the talks said the two countries had been negotiating the sales of 24 Su-30MK Flanker C air superiority fighters to replace Venezuelan contingent of U.S. F-16 multi-role fighters after Washington imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country. Venezuelan President...

Like you, I spent the past week viewing the events in the Middle East with growing concern. In the 13 weeks that I have been bringing you my thoughts in Winning the Future, I have shared with you directly many challenges facing us. But no challenge confronting America is greater than the one I am writing about today. And no challenge requires us to be more candid and more direct about what victory will require. As I talked about yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," I am now firmly convinced that the world confronts a situation that is frighteningly similar...

It was only last Saturday that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a two-day conference attended by officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, called on the Islamic world to mobilize and wipe out Israel. Less than a week later we see the results of this conference.

A missile fired by Hezbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon, the army said Saturday. Elite Iranian troops helped fire the missile... One sailor was killed and three were missing. The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102 at the ship late Friday. The official added that the troops involved in firing the missile are from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite corps of more than 200,000 fighters that...

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president. "We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,' " Gingrich said. He talks about the need to recognize World War III as important for military strategy and political strategy. Gingrich said he is "very worried"...

On July 14th the IDF's best anti-air defense vessel was mission killed by a strike from shore off the Beruit, Lebannon coast. It appears that the vessel was hit by a guided missile, launched either by Iranian trained Hezbollah, or by Iranian Guards themselves operating out of Lebannon. Land-launched Chinese anti-shipping missile, C-802 The missile was apparently a Chinese-made C-802 which is a sub sonic surface to surface anti-shipping missile. The Iranians have purchased a lot of these from China, and is working with N. Korea to improve the design. The missile is capable of a sea-skimming approach, and reportedly...