22/04/2012

                Damascus, Syria (Isaiah 17:1-3)

UN Monitors Visit Battered Syrian City 

Five unarmed UN monitors toured Homs, the battered city at the heart of the Syrian uprising, on foot on Saturday, The Associated Press reported. The report noted the monitors encountered unusually calm streets after weeks of shelling.The observers, members of an eight-member advance team that has been on the ground in Syria for a week, were seen on amateur video Saturday walking through rubble-strewn deserted streets lined by gutted apartment buildings.


 U.N. council authorizes up to 300 Syria truce monitors

UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a Russia-European drafted resolution on Saturday that authorizes an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria for three months to help bolster a fragile week-old ceasefire.But the 15-nation council's move to condition deployment of observers on a U.N. assessment of compliance with the truce reflected U.S. and European fears that the Syrian government's failure to stop shelling towns, return troops to barracks and withdraw heavy weapons from cities makes the prospects for success slim.

Activists: Syrian troops attack Damascus suburb

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops stormed and shelled districts in a suburb of the capital Damascus Sunday, activists said, a day after the Security Council voted to expand the number of U.N. truce monitors from 30 to 300 in hopes of salvaging an international peace plan marred by continued fighting between the military and rebels.An eight-member team is already on the ground in Syria, and since Thursday has visited flashpoints of the 13-month-long conflict. 

                 Middle East (Psalm 83:1-4) (Rev 9:16) (Rev 16:12)

 At least 17 suspected al-Qaeda militants killed in air raid on southern Yemeni town

At least 17 suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed in an air raid that struck one of their hideouts in the southern town of Louder, the defense ministry said on Sunday. The late Sunday attack brought to 57 the number of Islamist insurgents reportedly killed in south Yemen over the past three days, according to the defense ministry. AFP could not independently verify the toll.


Lieberman Warns Netanyahu Egypt More Dangerous than Iran

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Egypt presents more of a security danger than Iran.“We have to be prepared for all possibilities,” the Foreign Minister warned the Prime Minister. He suggested that the IDF create three or four southern divisions in the wake of a social and economic deterioration in Egypt and the increasing number of Egyptian troops in the Sinai Peninsula

               Magog Invasion – Iran, Russia (Ezekiel 38-39)

 Army chief: IDF prepared for Iran strike

 Should Israel decide to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, the IDF will be prepared to carry out the mission, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz told Yedioth Ahronoth in remarks published Sunday."In principle, we are ready to act," the army chief told the newspaper in a special interview ahead of Israel’s upcoming Independence Day. In respect to the Iranian threat, 2012 will be a critical year, Gantz said, adding that "the State of Israel believes that nuclear arms in Iran’s possession are a very bad thing, which the world should stop and Israel should stop."


 Iran: We reverse-engineered downed U.S. drone, making copy

A senior Iranian commander says the country has reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by Tehran’s armed forces last year and has begun building a copy.Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was quoted Sunday by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that experts are also recovering data from the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran. 

             The Rise of the East

China, Russia launch joint Yellow Sea naval exercise

 

Beijing: China and Russia launched joint naval exercises on Sunday that highlight warming ties between their militaries and growing cooperation in international affairs.Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the six days of drills feature simulated anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and search-and-rescue operations, including electronic countermeasures and other sensitive technologies.Retired major general Yin Zhuo said it shows a high degree of trust between the sides.

 

'N. Korea nuclear test may come within 2 weeks'

 

After carrying out two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, North Korea has completed preparations for a third such nuclear test, which could take place within two weeks, AFP reported Saturday, citing South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.Satellite images show an underground tunnel has been built at the site of North Korea's two previous nuclear tests. "Heaps of earth and sand which had been piled up outside the new tunnel have disappeared...It is highly likely that the North has installed a nuclear device inside the tunnel and sealed it (with the piles of earth and sand)," Chosun Ilbo quoted a South Korean government source as saying.