Apocalyptic Church

telegraph.co.uk

A mysterious image of a coiled snake has appeared in a 16th century painting of Queen Elizabeth I, according to the National Portrait Gallery.

The serpent was depicted being clasped in the Tudor monarch’s fingers in the original version of the work – but it was painted over at the last minute and replaced with a more decorative bunch of roses.

Deterioration over time has meant the snake has revealed itself once more, with its outline now visible on the surface.

The portrait was created by an unknown artist in the 1580s or early 1590s.
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news.yahoo.com

Banks shuttered in Fla., Ill., Md., Utah

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., with $535.7 million in assets and $443.5 million in deposits. Also seized were Bank of Illinois of Normal, Ill., with $211.7 million in assets and $198.5 million in deposits; Waterfield Bank in Germantown, Md., with $155.6 million in assets and $156.4 million in deposits; and Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah, with $215.2 million in assets and $205.1 million in deposits.

First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., based in Raleigh, N.C., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Sun American Bank and to share losses with the FDIC on $433 million of the failed bank’s loans and other assets. It was First-Citizens’ fourth acquisition of assets of a failed bank since last July; the others were First Regional Bank of Los Angeles, Venture Bank of Lacey, Wash., and Temecula Valley Bank of Temecula, Calif.
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news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – A gunman coolly drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at the subway entrance to the Pentagon complex Thursday evening, wounding two police officers before being shot and critically wounded, officials said.

The two officers suffered grazing wounds and were being treated in a hospital, said Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police. Authorities had no motive for the shooting.

The suspect, believed to be a U.S. citizen, walked up to a security checkpoint at the Pentagon in an apparent attempt to get inside the massively fortified Defense Department headquarters, at about 6:40 p.m. “He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting” at point-blank range, Keevill said. “He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face.” The Pentagon officers returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.
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news.yahoo.com

BARCELONA, Spain – A 26-foot wave smashed into a cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 people in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, smashing glass windshields and killing two passengers, according to officials and news reports.

Another six people suffered light injuries, the Greek coast guard said in a statement. The victims were identified as a German and an Italian man.

The ship asked for permission to dock in Barcelona and arrived at the Spanish port shortly after 9 p.m. (2200 GMT), the Spanish news agency Europa Press said.

There, four ambulances were waiting to take the bodies and the injured to a hospital in the city, the agency said.
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news.yahoo.com

EWA BEACH, Hawaii – Hawaii is under a tsunami warning following a massive earthquake that struck central Chile.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also said a tsunami advisory was in effect for the coast of California and an Alaskan coastal island area from Kodiak to Attu.

The center says a tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along coastlines of all islands in the Hawaii. It said a tsunami in California and Alaska was possible.

The Ewa (EH-vah) Beach, Hawaii-based tsunami center says the first waves are expected to arrive at 11:19 a.m. Saturday (4:19 p.m. EST).
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news.yahoo.com

SANTIAGO, Chile – A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, killing at least 78 people, collapsing buildings and setting off a tsunami.

A huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, said President Michele Bachelet.

Tsunami warnings were issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

“It has been a devastating earthquake,” Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma told reporters.
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news.yahoo.comTOKYO – A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 rattled Japan’s southern islands early Saturday, injuring two and initially prompting fears of a tsunami.

There were no reports of serious damage from the quake, believed to be the strongest in a century to hit Japan’s southern Okinawa Island. Japan’s Kyodo news agency said two people were hurt, but there were no reports of any deaths.

The quake occurred off the coast of the island of Okinawa at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) at 5:31 a.m. Saturday (2031 GMT Friday), the Meteorological Agency said.
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news.yahoo.com

SYDNEY – An iceberg about the size of Luxembourg that struck a glacier off Antarctica and dislodged another massive block of ice could lower the levels of oxygen in the world’s oceans, Australian and French scientists said Friday.

The two icebergs are now drifting together about 62 to 93 miles (100 to 150 kilometers) off Antarctica following the collision on Feb. 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.

“It gave it a pretty big nudge,” Young said of the 60-mile (97-kilometer) -long iceberg that collided with the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg. “They are now floating right next to each other.”
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news.yahoo.com

ATHENS, Greece – Police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Athens after some 50,000 people finished a peaceful march against cutbacks intended to fix the country’s debt crisis.

The violence lasted about 30 minutes, when scores of youths hurled rocks, red paint and plastic bottles near parliament. Police said at least two people were detained, while several storefronts were vandalized.

Windows were smashed at the Finance Ministry’s General Accounting Office, which has been accused by the European Union of slipshod statistics-keeping that made the financial crisis worse.
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First the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says “The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman, Feb. 11, in a way that will leave them stunned.”

Next, on February 11th, there is a 4.5 magnitude earthquake in Iran, of the same magnitude as North Korea’s nuclear tests, in a sparsely populated area.

Then, on February 19, Russia said it was “very alarmed” by a leaked UN report which directly accused the country of building a nuclear weapon for the first time.

Confirmed weapons test? Mere speculation? What’s next?

Regardless of what it all means… it’s worth keeping a weather eye on.

news.nationalgeographic.com

Willie Drye
for National Geographic News
Published February 12, 2010

As snowstorm-ravaged states on the U.S. East Coast dig out, scientists say the past week’s “Snowpocalypse” could be a taste of harsh winters to come—and that, strangely enough, global warming may be to blame. Others aren’t so sure.

Meteorologist Joe Bastardi says the recent snowstorms may be the start of a trend of cold, snowy winters similar to those of the 1960s and 1970s.

Bastardi, of the AccuWeather forecasting service in State College, Pennsylvania, believes the February record snowfalls, though, are due more to an El Niño that formed last year than to climate change.
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telegraph.co.uk

Iran was driven deeper into international isolation yesterday after Russia said it was “very alarmed” by a leaked UN report which directly accused the country of building a nuclear weapon for the first time.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Moscow had lost patience with the regime after UN weapons inspectors declared for the first time on Thursday that it was seeking to “weaponise” its nuclear stocks.

“We are very alarmed and we cannot accept this, that Iran is refusing to co-operate with the IAEA,” Mr Lavrov said. “Some questions remain on the table and Iran has so far not reacted to them but they are rather serious and we need to understand how several documents concerning military nuclear technology found their way to Iran.

“Clear explanations are needed.”

The strong denunciation was a departure for Russia, which has been a brake on efforts to censure Iran until recently.
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news.yahoo.com

CAIRO – It’s something Egyptians rely on daily: the “ambooba,” the steel canister of government-subsidized cooking and heating gas, hooked to the stove or water heater in the cramped homes of nearly everyone in this country’s large population of poor.

So in recent weeks, when the amboobas stopped coming, the angry outcry spread fast.

A winter shortage has sent authorities scrambling to find a solution and has once again fueled criticism that the government of this key Mideast U.S. ally is unable to deal with the problems of its people. For many, it raises memories of acute shortages of cheap subsidized bread in 2008 that raised similar frustration and anger.
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chicagotribune.com

The FDIC has similar offices in Irvine, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla., and the number of bank failures in those states picked up dramatically after the FDIC opened those quarters.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is opening a satellite office in Schaumburg that will accommodate up to 500 temporary staffers and contractors.

The banking regulator recently began running recruiting advertisements for the new office, saying it’s looking for people with skills and experience in such areas as loan management, contract oversight and asset marketing. Its Web site lists more than 330 job openings in Schaumburg.

The FDIC, which has a downtown office, said the new location will open in March. It will manage receiverships and liquidate assets from failed Midwest banks.
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Dan 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

2,300 days until June 6, 2016, 6/6/16, and then the sanctuary will be cleansed.

IN THE NEWS: Astronauts unveil phenomenal new window on world

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In a highly anticipated grand finale to their mission, astronauts opened the shutters on the International Space Station’s new observation deck Wednesday and were humbled by “absolutely spectacular” views of Earth from inside the elaborate atrium of windows.

The $27 million lookout opened each of its seven eyes one window at a time as the crews of the station and shuttle Endeavour carried out their third and final spacewalk.
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