***

WND EXCLUSIVE

JESUS 'DECLARED HE'S GOD OF OLD TESTAMENT'

Author: Christ's divinity clearly revealed in original Aramaic

Published: July 6,2013

JOE KOVACS

Actor Jim Caviezel spoke Aramaic as he portrayed Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ."

An American pastor and author who has produced his own translation of the New Testament based on the Aramaic text claims Jesus openly declared numerous times that He is the Creator God of the OLD Testament.

Aramaic is the ancient language believed by many scholars to be the language Jesus Himself mainly spoke in the first century, as depicted in Mel Gibson’s popular 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.”

“With all the Aramaic references to the name of the Deity,” says Rev. David Bauscher of Cambridge. N.Y., “the [Aramaic] New Testament not only teaches that Yeshua (Jesus) is divine, but it names Him as the Lord Jehovah of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who created Heaven and Earth, appeared to Abraham and appeared and gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it so names Him over 80 times.”

His latest work is titled, “The Aramaic New Testament in Plain English,” with details provided at his website, AramaicNT.com.

Bauscher is a former high-school science teacher proficient in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, and has been teaching the Bible since 1976. He is also the father of 12 homeschooled children.

Rev. David Bauscher, right, and his wife, May, in Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, in 2007.

He admits most Bible scholars believe the original New Testament was written in Greek, or almost all books were initially written in Greek.

But Bauscher contends there’s more evidence indicating the 27 books comprising the New Testament were actually written in Aramaic before they were translated into Greek, as is thought by many Assyrian and Syrian Christians.

“I was convinced, after two years of intensive research, that the complete Peshitta New Testament (as embodied in the 1905 Syriac Peshitta New Testament edition) was the original inspired text delivered to the apostles and evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,” he told WND.

The name “Peshitta” in Aramaic means “straight”– in other words, the original and pure New Testament.

“The American people at least deserve to read a direct English translation of the original Aramaic words of Jesus and the apostles into English, as opposed to all the translations from Greek, which I have demonstrated is itself a translation of the Aramaic original,” said Bauscher.

“We also deserve to know that the original was not Greek, but Aramaic, should we desire to study the original language and text for ourselves, not to mention that we deserve a rightly educated clergy, who know the historical and cultural realities of first-century Israel and the original Scriptures. There is widespread misinformation and false propaganda being disseminated in Christian churches concerning this matter.”

Though translations of from the Aramaic text have been done before, one major difference is Bauscher’s rendering of a key phrase that he says points to the divine identity of Jesus.

While many versions from the Greek have Jesus simply saying, “I am,” Bauscher has published it from the Aramaic to read, “I am the Living God.”

For example, his version of Mark 14:61-64 reads as follows, using the original name Yeshua to refer to Jesus:

But he was silent, and he did not answer him anything. And again, The High Priest asked him and said, “Are you The Messiah, The Son of The Blessed One?”

But Yeshua said to him, “I AM THE LIVING GOD, and you shall behold The Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of Heaven.”

But The High Priest ripped his tunic and he said, “Why now do we need witnesses?”

“Behold, you have heard the blasphemy from his own mouth. How does it appear to you?” But they all judged that he deserved death.

Another example of Jesus stating He is, in fact, God, is found in the 18th chapter of the Gospel of John, where the apostle Judas, referred to as Yehuda in this translation, helps Jesus get arrested:

Bauscher's translation of John 18:3-6 has Jesus saying, "I AM THE LIVING GOD" as He's being arrested.

And the famous first words from John are rendered as: “In the origin The Word had been existing and That Word had been existing with God and That Word was himself God.”

The New King James Version of John 1:1 states it as: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus is also referred to as God and not just the Son of God in other translations of the Bible based upon the Greek.

For instance, Hebrews 1:8, speaking of God the Father, indicates: “But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.”

***

The Telegraph

Welby calls for Church to join the sexual ‘revolution’

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned the Church of England that it had to face up to a “revolution” in attitudes to homosexuality.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said that it is important not to use “derogatory terms” when talking about people on benefits. Photo: Getty Images

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor

05 Jul 2013

In his most widely anticipated address since taking over the leadership of the Church, the Most Rev Justin Welby insisted that it was now “absurd and impossible” to ignore an “overwhelming” change in social attitudes.

In a deliberate echo of Harold MacMillan’s 1950 speech which attacked apartheid in South Africa, the Archbishop warned church leaders that they needed to reassess their own attitudes to gay people – even if they do not “like it”.

While insisting he had no immediate plans to change policy on issues such as gay marriage, he announced a major campaign to curb anti-gay bullying in the Church of England’s more than 5,000 schools.

He is understood to have approached Stonewall, which led the campaign in favour of gay marriage, to invite it into church schools to teach up to a million children about homosexuality.

“We may or may not like it but we must accept that there is a revolution in the area of sexuality,” the Archbishop said.

His comments, signalling a dramatic change in tone from the established church, came in his first address as Archbishop to the Church’s General Synod which is meeting in York as it attempts to come up with a new solution to the fiasco over women bishops.

In a wide-ranging address he said that Britain, like other countries, is living through a “time of revolutions” affecting the economic and political sphere but also in social attitudes.

He acknowledged a “radical” decline in religious affiliation, as borne out by the recent census and other polling, as well as an “overwhelming” shift in public attitudes on issues such as sexuality where “predictable attitudes” were disappearing.

But he insisted that the Church could benefit and even begin to grow again if it was willing to “respond radically and imaginatively” to a changing world.

The Archbishop, who visited Egypt last week, drew comparisons with the fast-moving situation in the country.

"We live in a time of revolutions,” he said.

“And the trouble with revolutions is that once they start no-one knows where they will go.”

Turning to the “many revolutions” underway in Britain, he said: “The cultural and political ground is changing, there is a revolution.

“Anyone who listened to much of the Same Sex Marriage Bill Second Reading Debate in the House of Lords could not fail to be struck by the overwhelming change of cultural hinterland. Predictable attitudes were no longer there.

“The opposition to the Bill - which included me and many other bishops - was utterly overwhelmed, with amongst the largest attendance and participation and majority since 1945.

“There was noticeable hostility to the view of the churches”.

He admitted that it had been “close to the bone” to evidence of young gay people driven to suicide because of uncaring attitudes from churches.

“In some things we change course and recognise the new context.

“In others we stand firm because truth is not set by culture, nor morals by fashion.

“But let us be clear, pretending that nothing has changed is absurd and impossible.”

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said: “Of course we will always help an education provider in helping to tackle homophobic bullying in schools and there are already several dozen Church of England schools working with Stonewall.

“But the cynic would be tempted to think perhaps that the Archbishop is trying to distract attention from his failure to engage gay people - when they requested it over the issue of marriage.”

***

The Raw Story

James Dobson: Marriage equality will destroy ‘entire superstructure’ of society

By David Edwards

July 1, 2013

Evangelical radio host James Dobson on Monday warned his listeners that last week’s Supreme Court rulings in favor of same sex marriage could cause the “entire superstructure” of society to “come down.”

“That’s the foundation of the relationship, a man and a woman,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and conservative attorney Bill Becker. “And if you undermine it, if you do anything to cause it to crack like has occurred now with the rulings last week, you necessarily threaten the entire superstructure. I believe it can come down.”

“Because you can’t have stability without a functioning marital relationship that leads to strong children who know who they are as a boy or a girl or a man or a woman,” Dobson added. “This has been devastating. Even if eventually legally we somehow walk it back a bit, I don’t see our [society] ever completely recovering from what has happened here.”

Becker agreed that “we’ve seen the collapse of Western civilization in one day.”

***

WND

CHURCH SEVERS TIES WITH SCOUTS AFTER 68 YEARS

Christians 'are going to be forced to take more of these stands'

Published: July 7, 2013

ART MOORE

A Southern Baptist congregation in Georgia that has sponsored a Boy Scout troop for 68 years is one of many that already have decided to part ways with the iconic youth organization after its national council decided to allow boys who identify as homosexual to join their ranks.

Ernest Easley, senior pastor of Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., northwest of Atlanta, told WND his church’s decision to sever sponsorship of Troop 204 must be seen in the larger context of the moral decay of civil institutions in America.

“I’m more concerned about the direction of our country,” he said shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court announced two major rulings that will help advance same-sex marriage.

“The church is going to be forced to take more of these stands in the days to come,” he said. “The Boy Scouts issue is a minor one compared to some of the decisions and stands that churches are going to be forced to take,” the pastor said.

“So I’m just electing to stand now, and I’m going to stand then, and I’m going to keep standing for truth.”

Easley said he’s concerned about the witness of a Christian church having a formal affiliation with an outside group that affirms and accepts a homosexual lifestyle.

“We’re not going to sponsor Planned Parenthood either, because we don’t believe what they believe,” he explained.

The Boy Scouts, he said, are a separate organization that the church has chosen to support because of the Scouts’ moral convictions.

“They’re trying to build character and morals into these young men, and historically it’s been easy to put an arm around them and say we will sponsor a troop,” he said.

“But the second that they decided to violate their own moral code and to violate what we believe to be biblical, as an outside group, we’re not going to have a formal relationship with them,” Easley said.

Bringing in a ‘sexual dimension’

At the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting in Houston last month, the denomination’s leadership voted overwhelmingly to oppose BSA’s membership decision, which stopped short of allowing adult homosexual scoutmasters.

The resolution by the Southern Baptists, who emphasize the autonomy of the local church, did not require churches to sever ties with the Scouts, but declared that homosexual conduct is contrary to a Scout’s oath to do his duty to God.

Some 4,000 Baptist churches sponsor 108,000 troops, according to the Boy Scouts website.

Without naming Boy Scouts leaders, the Southern Baptist Convention resolution urged the removal of some in BSA executive and board positions who had tried to change the policy earlier this year without input from “the full range of the Scouting family.”

A policy change considered by the BSA executive committee in January would have given local Boy Scout councils the option of whether or not to accept both boys and adult leaders who identify as homosexual. But the board decided to hand off the decision to the 1,400 member national council, which passed, with a 61 percent vote, a compromise resolution removing the local option and allowing only homosexual scouts.

Steve Lemke, provost of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and chairman of Southern Baptist Convention Resolutions Committee argued at the Houston meeting that the new BSA policy “politicizes the membership, and it also brings a sexual dimension that wasn’t there before.”

But some SBC pastors insist that a boy who claims to be homosexual needs the love and guidance a church can provide.

“So let’s bring him in and show him what real biblical manhood is about,” said Charlie Dale, pastor of Indian Springs First Baptist Church in Alabama.

Meanwhile, the three largest religious sponsors of Scout troops – the SBC is fourth – are encouraging their members to continue sponsoring BSA troops: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, the United Methodist Men and the National Catholic Committee on Scouting.

Religious institutions comprise more than 70 percent of the organization’s charter partners.

The Mormons insisted the recent membership decision enforced some of the Boy Scouts century-old values, pointing out that the Boy Scout Oath requires boys pledge “to do my duty to God.”

The Southern Baptists, in contrast, state in their resolution that the membership change “has the potential to complicate basic understandings of male friendships, needlessly politicize human sexuality, and heighten sexual tensions within the Boy Scouts.”

The BSA argues the resolution Scout leaders passed May 23 “reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting.”

The next step

Easley has given Troop 204 until the end of the year to vacate his church building. The Scouts’ policy change is effective Jan. 1, 2014, the BSA says, “allowing the transition time needed to communicate and implement this policy to its approximately 116,000 Scouting units.”

Easley said he has a question for churches that have decided to continue sponsoring a troop: “How how far do the Scouts have to go before you will sever it?”

The next step, he said, will be allowing homosexual Scout leaders.

“When that happens, will that be enough to cross the line for you as a parent, as a pastor?” Easley asked.

“That will be a question I won’t have to answer, because we’ve already made the decision.”

He argued that as homosexual activists continue to establish special legal rights, the BSA already has removed the underpinnings of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 ruling. The court affirmed the private organization’s right to exclude homosexuals, because the behavior violated its core values.

“Now that they’ve violated their own corporate document, they don’t have any legal footing,” Easley said.

California’s state Senate has approved legislation that would use the state’s tax policy to pressure the Boy Scouts of America into also accepting homosexual adult leaders.

Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara emphasizes that the new policy is illogical, because homosexual scouts suddenly are excluded from the organization when turn 18. He will continue to push a resolution that would revoke the BSA’s tax-exempt status “to ensure that discrimination in any form does not exist – not in our state, not on our dime.”

“Equality does not have an expiration date,” he said. “Discrimination should not be subsidized.”

The homosexual-rights group GLAAD has said it and other like-minded activist groups will now encourage homosexual youth to participate in the Boy Scouts. But spokesman Ross Murray said “the ban on gay adult leaders is still a major barrier for many families and organizations.”

Some churches are making a statement while continuing their relationship with the BSA.

A Presbyterian church in Salt Lake City said it will remain a sponsor but will not abide by the policy change.

Pastor Neal Humphrey of Westminster Church announced his resignation from the executive board of the local Trapper Trails Council, the third-largest in the country, the Deseret News of Salt Lake City reported.

In his resignation, Humphrey said his church will continue as a chartered group but “will not follow the BSA, Trapper Trails Council nor Mormons in endorsing what scripture and the church of Jesus Christ through the ages has defined as sin.”

Southern Baptist pastor Tim Reed told CNN affiliate Fox 16 in Arkansas it was Scripture versus the Scouts.

“God’s word explicitly says homosexuality is a choice, a sin,” said Reed, pastor of First Baptist Church of Gravel Ridge in Jacksonville, Ark.

He said that after the May 23 vote, his church had no choice but to cut its charter with Troop 542.

“It’s not a hate thing here,” Reed said. “It’s a moral stance we must take as a Southern Baptist church.”

Easley said he blames the church for the advance of a political agenda that has now impacted the Scouts.

“What grieves me is we as the church have allowed this to happen on our watch. This didn’t happen on my father’s watch. It happened on my watch,” he said.

“I think that we owe God an apology for the lack of effectiveness in penetrating the darkness in this country,” the pastor continued.

The church, he said, needs to do “a better job of loving people and pointing people to Christ and forgiveness and salvation.”

He emphasized he’s not blaming Washington or even the Supreme Court.

“I’m blaming us, for letting this happen on our watch,” he said. “It grieves me and angers me.”

Not taking sides’

A church in Marietta has offered to step in and sponsor Troop 204 – the Unity North Atlanta Church – but Easley told WND the troop leadership would never accept sponsorship from a tiny congregation that “believes that everybody is going to heaven.”

“It’s not a Bible-believing church,” he said. “I can tell you the troop leadership of troop 204 would never allow that to happen.”

In neighboring Alabama, Bishop Kee Sloan, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, has posted a letter that responds to the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution, without naming the denomination.

Sloan is urging Episcopal churches to sponsor troops as more local SBC churches, such as Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, announce plans to sever sponsorship.

The bishop wrote that he doesn’t “want to intrude into another institution’s controversies or difficulties – either that denomination’s or the Scout’s – we have enough to deal with on our own.”

“But it’s boys and young men who will be most affected by this decision, as their Boy Scout Troops might well be turned away from the local church that has been sponsoring them, and I do want for us to respond to that as appropriate,” Sloan said.

He urged the local parishes “to be mindful of the Boy Scout Troops in your community, especially those who will no longer be able to meet and have some of their activities in some of the churches.”

The bishop said he is “not at all interested in taking a side in the ongoing argument about sexuality in the Scouting movement” but wants to extend “hospitality, as one institution torn by this controversy to another, to the boys and young men of the Boy Scouts of America, and to the adults who give their time and energy to work with them.

***

Hobby Lobby Founder-May Close ALL Stores

Hobby Lobby May Close.

DavidSloan“The wisdom that comes from above is, first, pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.” – James 3:17

By David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames.. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God’s word.

From there, Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.

We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest.

We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.

But now, our government threatens to change all of that.

A new government healthcare mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs.

It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one.

If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.

Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy.

Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running.

Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it’s the same for everybody. But that’s not true.

The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won’t exempt them for reasons of religious belief.

So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don’t like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit.

My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult.

The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that’s a choice no American and no American business should have to make.

The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church.

Since you will not see this in the liberal media, please pass this on to all your contacts.

Sincerely,

David Green

CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

***

Natural News

Abortion activists caught on camera, possessed by spooky ‘Hail Satan’ chant at Texas State Capitol

Mike Adams

July 9, 2013

You may have heard that Texas is seeking to outlaw late-term abortions — the kind of abortions that kill a nearly full-grown baby who has eyes, ears, hands, a beating heart and can experience pain. The idea that such pre-born human beings cannot be murdered at will infuriates “pro-choice” abortion activists, and the true inspiration for their desire to kill babies has finally emerged.

A truly bizarre, almost “creepy” video has just surfaced, revealing pro-abortion activists chanting “Hail Satan” in unison at the Texas State Capitol building. As you can hear for yourself in the video below, people in the background begin chanting, “Hail Satan!” during the speech of a woman who opposes late-term abortions. It appears at 5:12 in the video and continues for many seconds.

The woman giving the speech is saying, “We have doctors down in Houston who are butchering women, butchering children…” and the pro-abortion people raise their voices, singing and chanting, “Hail Satan! Hail Satan!” over and over again.

Later, pro-life advocates sang, “Amazing Grace,” completing the contrast between the abortion foes and the abortion advocates (who literally worship Satan).

Even the Church of Satan was offended

The chanting of “Hail Satan” garnered the attention of the UK Church of Satan which was offended by it. The church actually tweeted, “Unfortunate to see Satan’s name used in such a diabolical manner.”

Apparently the butchering of 20-week old children is too diabolical for even Satan! But it’s considered a “right” by U.S. abortion advocates.

Obviously, not all abortion activists are Satan worshippers, but you’ll notice that none of them have denounced the Satanists, either. By failing to denounce it, they effectively embrace and welcome Satan worship as part of their cause.

Note that Texas is not trying to ban all abortions; it’s only banning abortions after 20 weeks. You truly have to wonder what kind of woman keeps a baby for 20 weeks and then changes her mind and decides to kill it. This isn’t abortion; it’s the murder of a viable, conscious human being that’s more than 50% of the way toward birth (babies are typically born at 38 weeks).

It is very difficult for any rational argument to be made that aborting a baby that’s 20, 25 or 30 weeks old isn’t the killing of a human being.

Post-birth abortions: kill your baby up to age three

But killing babies just before they’re born isn’t quite enough for these Satan worshippers. As has already been revealed, abortion activists want babies to be aborted even after they are born. The practice is called “post-birth abortion” (or simply “infanticide”) and abortion activists want women to have the “right” to kill their children up to age three!

In support of the practice of murdering infants, two bioethicists, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, recently authored a paper that was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics entitled, “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?”

The “scientific” paper actually argues for the killing of babies as follows:

[W]hen circumstances occur after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible. … [W]e propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather than ‘infanticide,’ to emphasize that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus … rather than to that of a child. Therefore, we claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be.

It also states that, “newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons” and “the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant.”

The conclusion of the paper states, “…if a disease has not been detected during the pregnancy, if something went wrong during the delivery, or if economical, social or psychological circumstances change such that taking care of the offspring becomes an unbearable burden on someone, then [killing the baby is morally justified.]”

In other words, if the parents simply decide they no longer want the baby after it’s born, it is completely justified to kill it. This is the actual position of these abortion advocates.

To make it all easier to understand, the paper should have simply concluded with “Hail Satan.”


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abc News

Pope's Reform Path: Francis Shakes Up Church Establishment

By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp in Rome, SPIEGEL

July 6, 2013

It appears Pope Francis truly wants to change the Catholic Church. He's reforming the Vatican Bank first, but he's also circumventing the old guard wherever he can. The establishment is up in arms.

A cardinal in Rome earns about ?3,000 ($3,888) a month, even less than a pastor in Germany. But a cardinal's life in Rome is a lot more expensive -- with visits to restaurants and shopping at boutiques for the upscale clothing men of the church are expected to wear, not to mention their jewelry and the antiques they display in their apartments. So it's good to have friends who can treat you or otherwise provide support now and then.

Friends are also happy to give a cardinal a hand -- and not just out of religious considerations. A cardinal can be helpful in both political and business terms. So it's not surprising that a symbiotic relationship between parts of the Curia and the upper class around the world has formed -- one that brings together the establishment, luxury and power. It's a nice little tradition that new Pope Francis would like to put an end to. For the Catholic establishment, though, it is nothing less than a catastrophe.

A 'Sick' Church of 'Theological Narcissism'

Even before his enthronement as pope, when he was still a cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had spoken clearly about this. During his speech to the cardinal conclave, he warned that, "When the church does not emerge from itself to evangalize, it becomes self-referential and therefore becomes sick." He warned of "self-referentiality" and "theological narcissism." He also criticized a "mundane church that lives within itself, of itself and for itself." And it appears the Argentinian pope meant this criticism seriously. In fact, he demonstrates that every day.

Instead of wearing a gold cross, he has one of steel. And he lives in a sparsely furnished apartment in the Santa Marta guest house rather than in the Apostolic Palace. Instead of taking his seat in the Vatican concert hall to listen to classical music, he recently remained at his desk working on the final version of his decree for the church-state's own Institute for Religious Works (IOR) bank. With his signature, he created a powerful special papal commission to review the bank's activities. He also said the new commission must change everything at the Vatican Bank, as it is also known. He said the Vatican certainly needed a bank, but its areas of business should only reach a "certain point."

A Papal Bank with Mafia Contacts

For decades now, the IOR has been in the headlines for one scandal after the other. At the beginning of the 1980s, it was at the center of one of the darkest crime thrillers in postwar Italian history. The scandal surrounded billions in business with the mafia, and a Vatican banker was hanged from a London bridge by a killer commando.

But the chain of scandals never let up. When, in autumn 2010, fresh suspicions of money laundering to the tune of triple-digit millions emerged, then Pope Benedict XVI promised stricter rules for his financial managers. In fact, though, nothing changed. In the so-called Vatileaks scandal, secret documents that had been smuggled out of the Vatican shed light on bizarre intrigues inside the papal state. Often, the Vatican Bank played a role in those intrigues. Benedict XVI was appalled, but also overwhelmed. He failed to prevail over the powerful cardinals who backed the IOR. His resignation was the logical outcome.

German Baron Takes Helm of Bank

His successor is taking more decisive action. First, he fired Nunzio Scarano, the top accountant in the Vatican office that oversees Vatican property and investments, after he was accused of money laundering and corruption and arrested. Then, practically overnight, he forced out IOR Director Paulo Cipriani and his deputy. Now the bank will be led by Ernst von Freyberg, a German baron and former consultant, member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the president of the IOR supervisory board since mid-February.

Between now and October, Pope Francis wants to ensure clarity and also determine how the financial institute will handle its duties in harmony with the "church's mission" in the future. A that point, a new structure will be created for the bank and a new boss will be appointed.

"Did we actually vote for someone who really believes in what he preaches?" some within the Curia are now whispering. Once again, Francis has taken them fully by surprise. In an almost demonstrative manner, he has been excluding the Vatican apparatus in every way he can. Most recently, this happened with the trip the pope announced he would take on Monday to the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, first learned of the planned trip through a papal press release. And instead of the kind of months of advance-team work used by heads of the Catholic Church for trips in the past, Francis has dispensed with that. Instead, the eccentric Argentinian pope ordered his staff to prepare a plane so that he could fly there in the morning and be back by midday.

Thousands of refugees have arrived at Lamedusa each year in desperation after making the journey across the Mediterranean from North Africa in small, dangerous boats. Francis wants to pray together with them and also throw a wreath into the sea to commemorate those who have lost their lives trying to make it to Europe. The pope has announced that he doesn't want to meet with the mayor or other authorities. He also also ordered church officials to stay away.

***

WND

ANCIENT 'PROPHECY OF THE POPES' COMING TRUE?

Documentary explores intrigue that has lasted for centuries

Published: June 7, 2013

“The Last Pope?” includes medieval historians, Vatican-affiliated experts and authors. From Ireland to Italy, “The Last Pope?” tells a riveting story of eschatological intrigue. The film is based on the book, “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here,” by Tom Horn and Cris Putnam.

“The Last Pope?” delves deeply into the prophecies of St. Malachy, an Irish saint and archbishop of Armagh who lived from 1094 to 1148. Malachy’s “Prophesies of the Popes” is said to be based on a prophetic vision of the 112 popes following Pope Celestine II, who died in 1144.

Malachy’s prophecies, first published in 1595, culminate with the “final pope,” “Petrus Romanus,” or “Peter the Roman,” whose reign ends with the destruction of Rome and the judgment of Christ. A modern version of Malachy’s prophecies was published in 1969 by Archbishop H. E. Cardinale, the Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium and Luxembourg.

The film examines Malachy’s prophecies, which are a series of statements that purportedly provide clues as the identity of each of the 112 popes, in a critical light. Some of the statements refer to a particular town, while others make references to the coat of arms representing each pontiff.

Skeptics have said the book is nothing more than a collection of phrases similar to the writings of Nostradamus. Putman says people have a right to be skeptical, and if Malachy’s revelations are correct, they should stand up to scrutiny using the scientific method. He goes on to say that they provide a fascinating insight into the history of the popes.

“The way the scientific method works is you develop a hypothesis and you don’t try to prove a hypothesis, you try to disprove it,” Putnam said. “It’s easy to find some kind of confirming evidence if you go fishing around. In a lot of these prophecies, I think that’s a valid criticism.”

However, he says one pope in particular stands out in the prophecy surrounding his reign. For Pope Benedict XV, who was pontiff from 1914 to 1922, Malachy’s prophesy says “Religio Depopulata” or “religion depopulated.”

“Religion depopulated, now that is a bold prediction. With all things being equal, you wouldn’t expect religion to be depopulated,” Putnam said. “It might go up and down a little bit, the church might grow it might fall off a bit, but that is a risky position. It is easily falsifiable. If nothing happened during his reign, I would think that this prophecy would’ve been falsified, but what happens during Benedict XV’s reign?

“This was the onset of World War I, which was devastating. In the Soviet Union and Russia, we see the Bolshevik revolution. This is the beginning of militant atheism and the time that 200 million people left the church. Probably more than in any time in history, religion was depopulated, exactly when this prophecy predicted it would hundreds of years before.”

While the Catholic Church has had more than 400 years to dispute the procedures, a least one pope seemed to take stock in the prophecy. Pastor Angelicus, or the “Angel Pope,” was given to describe Pius XII, who was a fierce anti-communist.

Pius XII had a documentary made about himself, which he titled “The Angel Pope.”

“He was intimately involved in this project, and it even said how it exemplifies a day in the life of St. Malachy’s angelic shepherd in the heading,” Putnam said. “The Catholic Church has had 400 years to make a statement disputing [Malachy's predictions], but here we have one of their infallible popes who obviously claimed it for himself. That begs an explanation from any scholar who wants to dismiss it.”

Malachy’s prophecies appear to even have an eerie prediction regarding John Paul I, who was only pope for just more than a month. Describing John Paul I, Malachy says he is “of the half moon.” Interestingly, John Paul I ascended to the papacy on the day of the half moon.

“What makes it even more chilling is he only lived for one lunar cycle; he died after 33 days,” Putnam said.

Following the death of John Paul I, evidence suggested that the pontiff may have been poisoned. The details are covered in the book “Murder in the Vatican” by Avro Manhattan. Regardless of the cause of his demise, a statement made by John Paul I seems to indicate he had some knowledge of his impending death.

Cardinal Luciani, patriarch of Venice, was asked in Latin, “Do you accept your election as Supreme Pontiff, which has been canonically carried out?” His reply was unexpected as he said, “May God forgive you for what you have done in my regard.” In just more than a month, he was dead, supposedly dying in his sleep.

While Malachy’s prophecies have been around for centuries, Pope Francis is the final pope mentioned by the archbishop. If his prophecies are correct, Francis could be the last pope before the return of Jesus Christ.

Dr. George Grant, a historian and former pastor who has written more than 60 books, says regardless of whether there is any validity to the prophecies, sooner or later Pope Francis and the Vatican will have to deal with issue.

“It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s true; it matters whether people think it’s true and that they act in light of it,” Grant said. “Francis and the Vatican will have to deal with this in some way, and in dealing with it they are in a sense giving credence to it. Do I think we need to pay attention to it? Absolutely.”

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Nsnbc international

Syrian Army seizes Massive Chemical Stockpile from Insurgents. Enough to Wipe Out Entire Country

By Christof Lehmann

Published On: Wed, Jul 10th, 2013

While Russian experts have issued a report about an investigation into chemical weapons use in Syria, the Syrian Armed Forces seized a massive chemical depot from foreign backed insurgents after a heavy gunfight. The seized chemicals would, according to Syrian sources, have been sufficient to cause mass death on an unprecedented scale.

The seizure of the chemicals from the insurgents coincides with recent intelligence reports, according to which a renewed, political and military campaign against Syria will be initiated by the “opposition”, the insurgents, and the international alliance behind the war on Syria. The war has claimed more than 93.000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands, since 2011.

Massive Chemical Depot Seized from Insurgents in Banis, Tartus. The Syrian armed forces have seized a large amount of weapons, computers, communications equipment, and a large stockpile of chemicals, after a gunfight with insurgents on a farm in Banias, Tartus, near the Mediterranean Coast.

According to official Syrian government sources, the armed forces seized 79 barrels of Polyethylene Glycol, 67 barrels of Monoethylene Glocol, 25 barrels of Monoethanolamine, 68 barrels of Diethanolamine, and 42 barrels of Triethanolamine at the farm in Banias. The chemicals would, reportedly, have been sufficient to wipe out an entire city, if not the entire country.

The Syrian government has invited the United Nation chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom and the UN disarmament chief Angela Kane for talks to Damascus on Monday to announce the seizure of the chemical stockpile. The Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja´afari said:

The Syrian authorities have discovered yesterday, in the city of banias, 281 barrels filled with dangerous, hazardous chemical materials, capable of destroying a whole city, if not the whole country”.

The Syrian UN Ambassador expressed, that Damascus is confident that there will be “constructive negotiations with the Syrian officials in order to reach an agreement, particularly in terms of reference mechanism and time frame”.

Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin provides Expert Report on Chemical Weapons Use to UN Secretary General Ban Kyi-moon. Khan al-Assal Chemical Weapons Use by Insurgents, Not Syrian Armed Forces. The Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations has delivered a report from a Russian expert commission, which investigated the use of chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal, on 19 March 2013. The expert investigation concludes, that insurgents, not the Syrian Armed Forces had used Sarin gas in the deadly attack.

The Russian experts had taken samples at the site where the chemical weapons were used. Contrary to the purported evidence, derived through third parties, including journalists from the French newspaper Le Monde, which prompted the US Administration to approve of the delivery of weapons to the insurgents, the Russian experts have direct evidence.

Russia´s UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin said:

I have just passed the analysis of the samples taken at the site of the chemical attack to the UN Secretary General. It was determined, that on 19 March the rebels fired an unguided missile Bahir-3 at the town Khan al-Assal, which has been under government control. The results of the analysis clearly show that the shell used in Khan al-Assal was not factory-made and that it contained sarin”.

Vitaly Churkin added, that the content of the shell did not contain chemical stabilizers in the toxic substance and that it therefore was no standard issue chemical weapon. Churkin also underlined, that the RDX explosive that detonated the chemical weapon, which is an explosive commonly used for industrial and military applications, also is inconsistent with claims that the attack had been carried out by the Syrian Armed Forces. Churkin also added, that the manufacturing of the Bashir-3 chemical laden warheads had begun in February, and that it is the work of the Bashair al-Nasr brigade, which has close ties to the Free Syrian Army.

Discovery of Chemical Stockpile followed Intelligence Reports about Insurgents Preparations for Military Campaign in August – September and Renewed Political Campaign of “Opposition”.

The discovery of the chemicals stockpile, which according to official Syrian sources were sufficient to wipe out en entire city, if not the entire country, followed a recent intelligence report that states, that the current, relative military calm was due to the insurgents preparation of weapons caches throughout Syria, in preparation of a renewed military campaign in August – September 2013.

The Palestinian intelligence source also stated to nsnbc, that the election of the new opposition leader, the Saudi-Arabia backed Jaber, was part of preparations for a concurrent political campaign with renewed demands for a no-fly zone, chemical weapons inspections throughout Syria, the establishment of humanitarian corridors and other political pressure to support the renewed military onslaught.

The information by the Palestinian intelligence source was subsequently corroborated, when it became known that high-level intelligence representatives from Saudi-Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, the USA, France and Britain had held a secret meeting at the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, to prepare for a renewed campaign against Syria.

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City Watch

Monsanto: A Modern Day Plague

Written by Lisa Cerda

19 Jun 2012

CERDAFIED - Monsanto’s history is one steeped with controversial products, deadly consequences, massive cover ups, political slight of hand, and culminates as a modern day plague on humanity, a plague that is about to peak to biblical proportions. Created in 1901, the company started producing its first form of poison, the artificial sweetener saccharin. The rise in use of saccharin really began 70 years later. Monsanto had plenty of time for a realistic and long term study on the impact of saccharin on human health. Instead, Monsanto learned how to finagle political support and grow its empire despite the growing consensus that saccharin caused cancer.


No surprise then that the company continued on a path of controversy. Here’s a bullet point history.



• Contributed to the research on uranium, for the Manhattan Project, during WWII.


• Operated a nuclear facility for the U.S. government until the late 1980s.


• Top manufacturer of synthetic fibers, plastics and polystyrene (EPA’s 5th ranked chemical production that generates the most hazardous waste).


• A top 10 US chemical company.


• Agriculture pesticides producer.


• Herbicide producer - herbicides 2,4,5-T, Agent Orange, Lasso, and DDT.


• Agent Orange (used in Vietnam), had the highest levels of dioxin and contaminated more than 3 million civilians and servicemen of which only partial compensation awarded.


• Nearly 500,000 Vietnamese children were born deformed and never compensated.


• Lasso was banned in USA, so weed killer “Roundup” is launched in 1976.


• A major producer of both dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which generated many law suits and environmental cleanups


• $180 million settlement for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange


• Fined $1.2 million for concealing the discharge of contaminated waste water


• Ordered to pay $41.1 million due to hazardous waste dumping


• Paid $600 million in settlement claims to more than 20,000 Anniston residents in Abernathy v. United States.


• Produced GM cattle drug, bovine growth hormone (called rBGH or rBST)

• Acquiring seed companies from the 1990’s and forward.


•Monsanto Filed 144 lawsuits against struggling farmers and settled out of court with 700 farmers, for reportedly violating seed patents. A full time staff of 75 Monsanto employees investigates patent infringement. They are dedicated solely to finding farms that have been contaminated by their unwanted seed. As of 2007, Monsanto was awarded in 57 recorded judgments against farmers a total of $21,583,431.99. Monsanto vs. Farmers. 



The Washington Post reported, "For nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as 'CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy' show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew."



PCB’s are considered an absolute threat to our world. Environmentalists rightfully want a pound of Monsanto’s flesh!  In 1969, Monsanto knew the impact of their products and put together an abatement plan for the entire United States, Canada and sections of Europe, especially the UK and Sweden. It’s disingenuous to suggest it could be done, for any amount of money. In the town of Anniston, Alabama, where the Monsanto plant was located, residents had PCB levels hundreds and sometimes thousands of times higher than the average person. They were dying or ill.



Monsanto decided to look at other products they could produce because their economic reliance on one profitable product was precarious at best. They split the company and Monsanto spawned Solutia, so that the massive lawsuits would not take down the entire company. Found guilty of conduct "so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society." The court decisions were destroying profitability.



Monsanto was just getting started with its assault on our ecosystem. Roundup was being marketed in 115 countries. Meanwhile Solutia was going down by means of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and lawsuits.



With the popularity of Roundup, the company became increasingly concerned about the patents expiration in 2000. They sold off the plastics division in 1996 and their phenylalanine facilities in 1999. Here again, Monsanto was trying to avoid financial liability for its hazardous waste producing past.



Monsanto merged with Pharmacia, and became legally a different corporation, despite sharing the same name, the same corporate headquarters, the same executives and employees, not to mention most of the liabilities from its former activities.



The new focus was genetic engineering and particularly creating genes that are resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Can you imagine farming without weeds? Farmers were intrigued and some delighted. Growing food and spraying poison at the same time did nothing to boost the confidence of consumers. False claims that it was biodegradable lead to its frequent use. Health complaints came from neighbors of farmers and farmers themselves. Soon the biodegradable claim on the packaging was removed.



Heading in a new direction, Monsanto was buying up seed companies left and right. They became the world's largest seed company, acquiring a quarter of the global proprietary seed market. By coupling their sale of Roundup with their gene modified seeds, they began dominating the agriculture market. By 2007, almost 90% of the world used GM seeds carrying at least one genetic trait for herbicide tolerance. Now Monsanto was a dominating the food chain, the farmers, and its assault on mankind.



Where there is market control, there is price gouging. In 2006 Roundup cost $32 per gallon, and by 2008 it was up to $75 per gallon. Not satisfied with this dominance of the world food chain, Monsanto began patenting their glyphosate resistant seeds. They hiked up the price of corn seeds by 35% and soy by 50%, leaving farmers financially plundered. Farmer suicide went from a trickle to a torrential rain. Averaging about one farmer suicide every 30 minutes.



Soy, corn, sugar beets, rice, alfalfa, cotton seed oil, canola oil, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, crookneck squash are now the sources of genetically food. But it gets worse. Corn and soy products are being fed to livestock, the livestock that you eat; chicken, eggs, sheep, pig, cows, goats, turkey, etc. Unless you have removed meat from your diet you are being systematically poisoned and perhaps even sterilized like the livestock that eats GMO corn and soy products.



The rights of farmers to save or exchange seeds have been stolen from them. Something that has been done for centuries, that guaranteed the survival of our species, changed overnight. Like a game of chess, Monsanto has with absolute intent, created a food crisis, offered up its poisonous solution, and has knocked chess piece after chess piece down in a calculated plan. 



Just look at the list of players behind the schemes and profiteering. Monsanto, U.S. regulators and judicial bodies have become strange bed fellows:



•U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a former Monsanto lawyer, wrote the majority of the opinion in a key Monsanto case. 



•Lawyer Michael Taylor, FDA employed, represented Monsanto sometime after, then returned as the FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Policy right as rBGH was granted approval. He was appointed as a senior adviser to the Food and Drug Administration (United States) Commissioner on food safety in August 2009 by President Barack Obama.



• Dr. Michael A. Friedman, prior deputy commissioner of the FDA, hired as a senior vice president of Monsanto.



•Linda J. Fisher, prior assistant administrator at the US Environmental Protection Agency, became a vice president at Monsanto from 1995-2000. In 2001, Fisher returned as the deputy administrator of the EPA.



•Donald Rumsfeld, Former Secretary of Defense, former chairman and chief executive officer of G. D. Searle & Co., (Monsanto purchased in 1985). Rumsfeld privately made at least $12 million from the transaction.



If by now you are feeling paranoid, targeted, and overwhelmed by this information, I understand why. 



You will move through all the stages of rage in time. Resist the urge to kick the produce man. Don’t hire a plane to spray Roundup on the White House, Senate, or House, I don’t advocate stooping to their levels. 



But you may want to go picket in front of Whole Foods after you read their blog explaining why they buckled under the pressure of the USDA and Monsanto. Whole Foods, the very symbol of health conscious living, has betrayed everything they stood for to the consumer.  Read Whole Foods Blog here. 



Now Monsanto can push full steam ahead, contaminating our nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches. Top executives from Whole Foods Market, Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley have given up on their 12 year battle to protect consumer’s choices. 



This decision sets a precedence for how genetically engineered foods will be regulated in the future. You can now expect the spread Monsanto’s mutant genes and seeds across the nation, contaminating other farms, and taking down other farmers by lawsuits.



A Swedish study found that spraying Roundup doubles the risk of getting cancer for farm workers’ and rural residents’. More worrisome is the fact that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) do not require safety testing, nor labeling identifying them as GMOs.



Anti- GMO efforts by organic companies, who demanded labeling and oversight, will begin to accept the so-called “natural” foods that are routinely contaminated with GMO’s. Companies like Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, Supervalu, Publix, Target and Safeway shy away from the attacks on GMO’s that they sell to their unwitting customer base. 



Whole Foods’ already sells “Natural” processed foods and animal products that are contaminated with GMOs. At least two thirds of WFM’s  $9 billion annual sales is derived products that are contaminated with GMOs. Whole Foods’ moral high ground is looking more like a sink hole. This constitutes fraud in my book.



Consumers must learn the difference between products marketed as “natural,” and those products that are “certified organic.” Just because you’re in a Whole Foods Market, does not mean your expensive food is safe. They are misleading you by masquerading natural as organic. 



GMOs and organics cannot coexistence. They are polar opposites in every way imaginable. GMOs  destroys biodiversity, damages the environment and public health, economically devastates farmers, and destabilizes the climate.



In the European Union, all foods containing GMOs or GMO ingredients must be labeled. Thus the market shelves are empty because consumers are not buying them. American consumers want mandatory labels on GMO foods, and according to the polls by a strong 85-95%. They don’t want the top poison producer, to monopolize the agricultural industry and have anything to do with the worlds food supply.



Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations have prevented consumer GMO truth-in-labeling laws. A new bill by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) calling for mandatory labeling and safety testing for GMOs is in Congress now. But Monsanto is allowed to buy vote’s thanks in part to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and the Citizens United case. In 2010, big corporations and billionaires got the right to spend obscene amounts of money to buy media coverage, elections, and do it anonymously, 



Recent news is … 5 million farmers are now suing Monsanto. They are fighting for the right to use seeds from previous year’s harvests. Seeds they harvested, but Monsanto patented. The bad news is … it’s still GMO seeds, a toxic transgenic breed, in markets without labels and health studies, and we have a government that finds this all acceptable.



Resources:



Monsanto Food wars, GMO seeds and Animals

The world According to Monsanto video


The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods


What is in your milk is not in the news.



Stop Monsanto from Poisoning Hawaii


GMO rice with human genes

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KipNews

PRODUCTS THAT CONTAIN “HEK CELL” (human embryonic kidney cells)

Posted: 11th March 2012

Biotech company using aborted fetal cell lines to test its flavor enhancers

(Largo, FL) Children of God for Life is calling on the public to boycott products of major food companies that are partnering with Senomyx, a biotech company that produces artificial flavor enhancers, unless the company stops using aborted fetal cell lines to test their products.

In 2010, the pro-life organization wrote to Senomyx CEO Kent Snyder, pointing out that moral options for testing their food additives could and should be used. But when Senomyx ignored their letter, they wrote to the companies Senomyx listed on their website as “collaborators” warning them of public backlash and threatened boycott. Food giants Pepsico, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup, Solae and Nestlé are the primary targets of the boycott, though Senomyx boasts other international partners on their website.

Senomyx website states that “The company’s key flavor programs focus on the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients that are intended to allow for the reduction of MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products.…Using isolated human taste receptors, we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

Senomyx notes their collaborators provide them research and development funding plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor ingredients.

“What they do not tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors”, stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for Children of God for Life, a pro-life watch dog group that has been monitoring the use of aborted fetal material in medical products and cosmetics for years.

“They could have easily chosen COS (monkey) cells, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, insect cells or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors”, Vinnedge added.

In writing to their collaborators, it took three letters before Nestlé finally admitted the truth about their relationship with Senomyx, noting the cell line was “well established in scientific research”.

After hearing Ms Vinnedge speak publicly on the problem, angry consumers began writing the companies. Both Pepsico and Campbell Soup immediately responded.

Shockingly, Pepsico wrote: “We hope you are reassured to learn that our collaboration with Senomyx is strictly limited to creating lower-calorie, great-tasting beverages for consumers. This will help us achieve our commitment to reduce added sugar per serving by 25% in key brands in key markets over the next decade and ultimately help people live healthier lives.”

Campbell Soup was more concerned in their response: “Every effort is made to use the finest ingredients and develop the greatest selection of products, all at a great value. With this in mind, it must be said that the trust we have cultivated and developed over the years with our consumers is not worth compromising to cut costs or increase profit margins.”

While Campbell did not state they would change their methods, still their response, gave Vinnedge hope.

“If enough people voice their outrage and intent to boycott these consumer products, it can be highly effective in convincing Senomyx to change their methods”, she noted.

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theguardian

Largest building in the world opens in China – complete with indoor seaside

Chengdu's New Century Global Centre has its own beach resort, cinemas, shops – and a replica Mediterranean village

Stately pleasure dome … New Century Global Centre, Chengdu, China. Photograph: Entertainment and Travel Group

Beneath smoggy clouds in the Chinese mega-city of Chengdu, waves lap against sandy shores and a salty breeze blows across the beach. 6,000 holidaymakers look out on a glowing sunset, dining on platters of "the rarest oceanic fish species", while a stage rises from the water, ready for the evening's multimedia music spectacular. China's fourth largest city may be 620 miles from the coast, but that hasn't stopped it having its own seaside – newly opened inside the biggest building in the world.

A 100m tall cliff-face of blue mirrored glass, stretching 500m along a triumphal plaza, the New Century Global Centre houses an entire seaside resort, along with a 14-screen Imax cinema, Olympic-sized ice rink, two five-star hotels and its own Mediterranean shopping village – all wrapped with a vast ribbon of offices. Sprawling for 1.7m square metres, it could fit 20 Sydney Opera Houses beneath its glass roof. It is declared by its creators to be "a landmark which commands the world and is looked upon by the world with respect," a pleasure dome that Kubla Khan could only dream of.

Positioned at the heart of the city's Tianfu district, a new hub for finance, IT and biochemical industries, the building squats like an overfed prize fowl, teetering out in all directions and looming above a neighbouring art centre by Zaha Hadid – a dwarf in comparison, at 140,000 square metres. Its design, say the developers, is "themed with a comprehensive and profound oceanic culture and inspired by the design concept of sailing seagulls and undulating waves".

'A landmark which commands the world and is looked upon by the world with respect'.

On entering the echoing 18-storey atrium, lined with a stratified cream cake of hotel balconies and zig-zagging escalators, visitors are blasted with artificial sea breeze, designed to "make one intoxicated, as if he were enjoying himself in the fabulous heaven". Moving past aquarium walls and through a strange hybrid townscape of Polynesian huts crossed with a middle eastern kasbah, tourists arrive at the 400m-long coastline, where the largest artificial waves in the world break in front of the longest LED screen in the world – on which "the alternating morning cloud and twilight afterglow extend the horizon limitlessly in the temporal and spatial directions".

Inside the New Century Global Centre, Chengdu, China

For one of the most polluted cities in China, the sun shines through the glass barrel-vaulted roof in a remarkably blue sky. "We have borrowed a Japanese technique," guide Liu Xun told the Sydney Morning Herald. "There is an artificial sun that shines 24 hours a day and allows for a comfortable temperature."

New Century Global Centre, Chengdu, China Photograph: Entertainment and Travel Group

With offices that are both "comfortable and pompous", entertainment facilities that offer "the most exquisite and extravagant audiovisual pleasures", 1,000 deluxe hotel suites that all enjoy a sea view, and one of the largest shopping malls in China, citizens of the New Century Global Centre are given no reason to leave. But nor might they be able to escape their work: "It is a world class modern city of idyllic beauty," trumpets the promotional video, "where recreation has become the core value of modern business concepts and business will become a way of life."

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