Lebanon in turmoil as caretaker government steps in

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s president prepared on Thursday to tackle the politically delicate task of naming a new premier after Hezbollah forced the collapse of the unity government, plunging the country back into crisis. President Michel Suleiman called on the government to continue in a caretaker capacity and said he would on Monday launch consultations with parliamentary groups on appointing a new premier, who must be a Sunni Muslim in line with tradition. In a sweep led by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, 11 ministers withdrew from Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government Wednesday evening, providing the minimum number of resignations to automatically dissolve the 30-member cabinet. The move was linked to a long-running dispute over the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is reportedly set to indict high-ranking Hezbollah operatives in the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, Saad’s father. The resignations of the 11 ministers came after Saudi Arabia and Syria failed in their bid to defuse tensions over the tribunal and find a compromise between the two rival camps. For months, Hezbollah has been pressing Hariri to disavow the Netherlands-based court, which is reportedly set to indict high-ranking members of the militant party in connection with Hariri’s 2005 assassination. The group has accused the tribunal of being part of a US-Israeli plot and has warned of grave repercussions should any of its members be implicated by the court. Hezbollah and its allies withdrew from the government formed in November 2009 at the exact moment Hariri was in Washington holding talks with US President Barack Obama on the crisis …

Obama administration proposes in abstentia trial for Hizballah

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are determined to bring Hizballah officials to justice for their involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut five years ago – even after they toppled the Lebanese government by their ministers’ walkout Wednesday, January 12. If a transitional government in Beirut declares the international tribunal – STL – invalid and refuses to honor its summonses for Hizballah security officials, Washington intends to obtain authorization for trying Hizballah suspects in absentia, DEBKAfile‘s Washington sources report. Hizballah and its Iranian backers would be cornered into deciding between intensifying the crisis in Lebanon or accepting international isolation . . . Last month, the administration assigned Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, to exploring with the United Nations the possibility of staging a trial in abstentia for Hizballah defendants refusing to appear in court. This procedure would break new ground in that it would make it possible for the first time to try missing defendants accused of assassination and terrorism. The Hizballah case would therefore provide a landmark for trying fugitive leaders of al Qaeda, Taliban and other radical Islamic terrorist organizations with known identities. International arrest warrants would override claims by countries like Pakistan and Iran that the whereabouts of wanted defendants are unknown. In this way, Osama bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and others could be brought to justice in their absence on the basis of US and other intelligence data …

[Editor's Note: The news that Hezbollah members have resigned en masse from the various cabinet level positions in Lebanon means the Lebanese government has now collapsed. This is a very important development, and deserves the attention of prophecy and political observers, for it presages the march to a gigantic confrontation in the Middle East – a conflict that is now certain to involve weapons of mass destruction.

The news comes as Saad Hariri is visiting Barack Obama in the US, and it is probably not at all unexpected. In prior posts, Christian Media Daily has noted there are indicators that the Northern power structure (NATO, the USA, the EU and Israel) have resigned themselves to the fact they are unable to achieve a diplomatic solution to the threat to Israel from Lebanon – effectively sealing the fate of the nation.

Because Lebanon is a surrogate of Syria, which is, in turn, an Iranian satellite, for some months now, we've been able to see that Lebanon is almost certainly the third of the three nations (joining Syria and Iran), which are scheduled to be "plucked up" by the Little Horn state of Israel.

The Old Testament prophet Daniel predicted it:

"Behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things." (Daniel 7:8)

While most believers reject this identification because the little horn image is classically associated with the Antichrist of the Bible, the fact is, these statements are true. The dramatic announcement of the Lebanese political crisis is a powerful indicator that the military explosion which we've long predicted is just around the corner, and it behooves all concerned to study and seek to understand just what is occurring all around them.

For more on the role of Israel as the little horn, see the DVD The Little Horn at ChristianMediaNetwork.com in the online catalog.]

[These stories, and much more, are part of today's news at ChristianMediaDaily.com]

I’ll file this under Obama . . . although it takes place in Europe, this is the type of health care to expect if Barack Hussein Obama gets his Agenda through.

By Fay Schlesinger, Andy Dolan and Tim Shipman
Last updated at 8:09 AM on 25th February 2010

Excerpt only – see full article here

Family who lost four loved ones

Kelsey Lintern was at the centre of one of the worst tragedies in the hospital’s appalling catalogue of failure.

She lost four members of her family within 18 months, her grandmother, uncle, sister and six-day-old baby.

Mrs Lintern, 36, almost became the fifth victim when a nurse tried to give her pethidine while she was in labour, despite her medical notes and a wristband clearly stating she was allergic to the drug.

The horrific story began in January 2007 when her baby daughter Nyah had to be delivered by her own grandmother because a distracted midwife was not looking.

The baby was not breathing but she was resuscitated, then discharged by a junior paediatrician just two days later, despite the family’s fears she was seriously ill.

She was not feeding properly and still appeared blue. She died four days later. A post-mortem examination revealed four holes in her heart. Mrs Lintern accepts that Nyah may have died in any case, but said the hospital should at least have ‘realised there was a problem’.

It was when she was in labour with Nyah that a nurse arrived with a syringe of potentially-fatal pethidine, oblivious to the fact Mrs Lintern was allergic to it.

In April 2007, Mrs Lintern’s sister, Laurie Gethin, 37, died of lung, bone and lymph cancer, which had taken 18 months to be diagnosed, even though she was displaying tell-tale symptoms.

Her body, with her eyes still open, was left on her blood-splattered bed in full view of other patients. Tests revealed that Mrs Gethin had ‘markers’ in her blood which can indicated cancer.

But it was only when she was sent for a scan at another hospital that tumours were discovered. Mrs Lintern’s uncle, Tom Warriner, 48, died in January 2008 after his intestine was accidentally pierced in an operation for bowel cancer.

A coroner ruled the death was accidental. That summer, her grandmother Lilian Wood Latta, 80, died hungry and dehydrated after suffering a stroke. She was left in her own excrement during her final days and the family said the dehydration was caused by staff failing to give her adequate fluids.

Mrs Wood Latta had been referred to the hospital by her GP after suffering a series of mini-strokes at home. She was moved between wards three times, and it was left to relatives to change her incontinence pads.

Her dying wish had been to see Mrs Lintern’s new baby Khalen, so, after checking with staff, Mrs Lintern took her daughter in. But as the frail pensioner held her great-grandchild, a nurse appeared and said: ‘What on earth is a baby doing here? You do know we’ve got MRSA and C-Diff on this ward?’

Mrs Lintern, who lives in Cannock, Staffordshire, with husband David and their two daughters, said: ‘It is called the caring profession. But where is the care?’

James Reay died in agony after a junior doctor at Stafford Hospital failed to check his medical history and gave him the wrong drug.

Read rest of the story here.

Psa 2:1-5
(1)  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
(2)  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
(3)  Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
(4)  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
(5)  Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.