Gerald Flurry has gone mad over his music hall!

Gerald Flurry, cultic pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God, is exposed in this disturbing excerpt from his sermon transcript of November 3, 2007 (that he complained to have removed from this site) where he vainly attempts to justify his massive spending in Edmond, Oklahoma - squandering millions in his own backyard - by pretending his music hall is God's House, the temple of God!

It’s all about family and looking to the Father and the Son and having them right in your front yard (chuckle) and your backyard right there where you do your work from headquarters and it-He’s right there in spirit. That’s something to get excited about. How much is that house going to impact you brethren and me? It’s gonna to build our faith and I tell you I believe we could see already I didn’t get to talk with Mr. Locher about this but I think I can already see a growth in websites, income after that fabulous Feast of Tabernacles and all the wonderful offerings we got there.

And, if you see, we have a challenge like that and we have our minds on God’s house where He’s gonna live right here with us, it surely has to help our faith to grow. It means we’re going to have more growth, more healings, more blessings, there just gonna to be everywhere, for us to see and hopefully a lot of people in the world. And that building will be like the crown...of all of our buildings. But think about this brethren: God, the God from that third heaven is gonna come down here and He’s gonna live here in spirit. And He’s gonna get our minds focused more on Him and what is coming, and I mean coming oh so fast...

It-ooooooh we could think about human beings to come here and live, but what about have God the Father and Jesus Christ here. How much does that physical-is that physical house going to affect our spiritual house?

...God gives us NEW REVELATION ALL THE TIME!!! HE’S SPEAKING TO HIS CHURCH!! THAT’S GOD DOING THAT. GOD IS SPEAKING TO US GIVING US HIS MESSAGE AND NOW WE’RE GONNA HAVE THE HONOR TO BUILD A HOUSE for God to dwell in on this campus. And I tell ya brethren, that certainly bodes well for the future of this great work of God and let’s all realize and thank God for the honor of being a part of it.

(emphasis mine)

You don't need any "special revelation" to read and believe the Bible that clearly shows God's House on Earth has always been in Jerusalem - not elsewhere like Mormons and others mislead.

Gerald Flurry foolishly attempts to spiritualize everything away when it comes to the holy temple of God that will be built in Jerusalem. The least he could do is encourage the Jews to fulfill their responsibility to build God's House - the Embassy of the Eternal - in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount and stop equating Edmond with Jerusalem! What chutzpah! What madness!

Third Temple
Where's the Temple On the Temple Mount?
Third Temple Coming Soon to Jerusalem!
The Temple of God in Holy Jerusalem

The PCG and Fox 25

Reporter Nick Winkler, of Fox 25 in Oklahoma City, presented a special report on the Philadelphia Church of God that aired Nov. 24 and Nov. 25.

I found the special report on the PCG, all things considered, unusually fair and balanced and commend Nick Winkler and Fox News for it, since the Sabbath-keeping Church of God members have always been highly skeptical of such reporters and cynical about such programs.

You can watch the Fox News' videos for yourself and see what you think:

Philadelphia Church of God: Part One
Philadelphia Church of God: Part Two

I'm pleased Fox News made mention of my book and name and showed them on my Philadelphia Church of God blog, having interviewed me as a former PCG member who was disfellowshipped for writing Beyond Babylon and who strongly disagrees with how Pastor General Gerald Flurry is squandering tithe money in Edmond, Oklahoma instead of going all out to share the plain truth of the Bible, our warning message, with the world in a powerful way that such money makes possible.

Fox 25, Oklahoma City, Special Report:
Philadelphia Church of God: Part One

David Ben-Ariel: I was basically put out..

Reporter Nick Winkler: Former PCG member David Ben-Ariel says he was kicked out of the Church for writing a book [Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall] without the Church's approval and says all that money [15 million Art Center on their Edmond, Oklahoma site] could be better spent spreading God's Word differently...

David Ben-Ariel: Hopefully, they'll stop spending their money in Edmond, Oklahoma and use it to become a household word with our teachings and let that become known.

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Fox 25, Oklahoma City, Special Report:
Philadelphia Church of God: Part Two

Nick Winkler: Before Jesus Christ returns...

David Ben-Ariel: Violence, WWIII...yes, there will be lots of violence.

Nick Winkler: Former PCG member David Ben-Ariel says he was kicked out of the Church but still defends its tithing practices...

David Ben-Ariel: Again, it's voluntary but it's understood if you're a Church of God member you will tithe and you'll want to.

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PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"
If you truly saw what is coming on this Earth, and had a vision of tomorrow, you would know that the Gathering Storm darkens as you sip champagne and boast that you're rich and in need of nothing, woefully ignorant that the Two Witnesses will soon be wearing sackcloth and fasting, not wining and dining at black tie dinners!

Here's an excerpt from Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion) that reveals the PCG ministers' initial response to Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, and how Gerald Flurry's fomer right-hand man, PCG minister Dennis Leap, shamefully insisted on playing politics:

What's BEWILDERING to me is the different responses I've received from several of God's ministers who have read Beyond Babylon -- towards it and me -- before and after Dennis Leap's PARTIAL review! (Malachi 2:9).

When I faithfully sent a computer disk with my book on it to minister Wayne Turgeon, he graciously read all of it and responded:

"Oh, how I admire those with both the ability to write as well as the courage to put down their ideas on paper! I felt that you have a very gripping style of writing that uses twists and slants of words or phrases to make your point. I looked up every scripture you referenced and it became clear that you have really spent a lot of time in your Bible. Being Jewish, I think, gives you an added perspective that I could never have... Much of what you have written is not 'new revelation' as I'm sure that you'd readily agree... It's certainly not my place to determine if what you believe God has shown you is true or not, but would you mind presenting Mr. Flurry with an abbreviated version of what you feel is inspired... as I highly doubt that he would have time to read your whole book."

What does he mean it's not his place to determine if what I wrote is true or not? God holds every INDIVIDUAL responsible to prayerfully determine whether something is of God or not! How did we prove Malachi's Message was biblical? Did we rely solely on our minister's evaluation? Worldwide all over again?

Mind you, unlike Mr. Armstrong's lengthy manuscript of close to 300 typed pages, Beyond Babylon is only 1/2 that size, literally! I suggested Gerald Flurry read the first and last chapters. Mr. Turgeon told me Flurry returned it to him, saying something like, "He's always sending us stuff."

I have written short letters to the point, like correcting him about Mount Hermon and Mount Carmel after he continued to confuse the two in several articles. I'm familiar with them because I've been blessed to have lived next to both of them. Mr. Turgeon also wrote that I was a little "too radical" for Mr. Flurry and wondered what I'd said or done that had given him that impression. I explained it's because I took exception to his careless condemnation of those religious Jews who want the Temple built as "extremists." I wrote that it's extremist for secular, humanist Jews to oppose converting the Promised Land into a Holy Land!

Flurry was surprised and had also written against the STRONG EMOTIONS some feel over Jerusalem and Israel. How could God use someone so distant over there?! Some of us have a GOD-GIVEN LOVE for Jerusalem and a genuine passion for Judah that's most personal; we're not a stranger in OUR Homeland! (Psalms 102:14; Ps. 137; Isaiah 62). That's not "radical," it's BIBLICAL!

Minister Carl Craven also read Beyond Babylon and acknowledged it as biblical. He said he hadn't looked up every Scripture, but was sure if he had they'd also be used correctly. I commented that I know it's biblical, but that I was just waiting for headquarters to prove that to themselves as well. He expressed an understanding of how it's difficult to be patient meanwhile.

When Dennis Leap did call, it was to instruct me to STAY HOME FROM SABBATH SERVICES while he looked at the book! I didn't recall such an unusual request being made of Mr. Armstrong, and recognized it went against "innocent until proven guilty," but obliged with the hope of returning soon (John 7:51).

"Prophesy Not!"

After some time, I called Mr. Leap. He said he'd read PARTS of the book, and that it wasn't important whether Mr. Flurry had read it or not (even though I'd been led to believe he'd pass it on to him). He stated, "You use some pretty strong language in there," to which I replied, "But it's biblical, isn't it?" "Well, yes, but...". He also noted, like Mr. Turgeon, that most of it is what we already teach. I agreed and said that that should serve as a GOOD SIGN, but that the NEW REVELATION about the Two Witnesses and Europe is firmly built upon that foundation.

Dennis Leap found it difficult to accept that a LAY MEMBER would write such a book. He admitted Flurry had received bits of revelation from lay members, but NEVER a whole book! I didn't want to be judged by precedent, but by whether or not what I'd written is biblical. If I was in error, then it was his duty to clearly show me where FROM THE BIBLE, like Aquilla and Priscilla helped improve Apollos' understanding (Acts 18:26).

I was informed if I wanted to return to services, I would have to forget Beyond Babylon, act like a "regular lay member," and basically deny that it was from God! Like Mr. Armstrong, I had PROVEN what I'd written to be TRUE. Actually, Leap didn't say that it wasn't or attempt to refute it!

I told Mr. Leap I didn't want to play politics. By his insistence that I must be a MINISTER to write such a book, he was still looking to MEN OF STATURE! And since I'm not one, he was demanding that I "PROPHESY NOT!" (Amos 2:12).

He got very angry when I mentioned this and said he was severing all ties between the PCG and myself, and that I wasn't to claim any association with the PCG. He said I was now free to go and do whatever I felt God would have me to do with BB and not worry whether or not he or Mr. Flurry had read it! When I expressed the hope of reconciliation, he retorted we could when I repented. Of what? OBEYING GOD RATHER THAN MAN? Is that "rebellion?"

Mr. Armstrong WASN'T an ordained minister either when he wrote what he felt GOD would have him to share! The Identity Doctrine also wasn't so much new truth, as a new way of presenting it. I'm sure glad he didn't let those two points stop him! Aren't you? So I was UNJUSTLY DISFELLOWSHIPPED for believing God used me to write a book, and MARKED for exposing the facts about Mr. Leap's folly!
************************************

Read Beyond Babylon for yourself. You can read Beyond Babylon for FREE on my Beyond Babylon blog!

Beyond Babylon
CONTENTS
Introduction
Survival Guaranteed
Why National Defeat?
Truth or Consequences
Victims of Tradition
Europe's Fate
Jesus and the Jews
Elijah's Key Role

Rome to return Jewish Temple treasures?

Israel won't surrender Christian sites to Vatican
Foreign Ministry delegation departs for Vatican, says won't let Catholics take control of Last Supper, other holy sites more»

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Don't believe a word of it!
Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.
-Otto von Bismarck

Warning Jews about the pope's plans for Jerusalem: Rome's dream will become Jerusalem's NIGHTMARE!

Articles and video warning Jews about the pope:
Pope's Evil Eye on Jerusalem! (You Tube video)
The Vatican plot against Jerusalem exposed!
Israel must reject Vatican overtures for peace or lose Jerusalem!
Christian-Zionist Response to Shimon Peres' AIPAC speech


The Vatican Must Return the Temple Treasures


Will the pope act like Belshazzar or Cyrus?
Will Rome learn from history and receive instruction from the Bible or harden their hearts and be destroyed like pharaoh and Babylon?

Indian Warns Islam Will Burn Churches

Rajesh commented on Manchester surrenders to Islam without a fight?"

You said absolutely.. We Indians are already suffering a lot.. and we will have to suffer till the end of the world until Islam lives. Brits and Europeans, you still have time to act, stop importing Asians and Middle East, North African people (especially you know who I am talking about).
Otherwise, one day they will burn all your churches.. I dont want you people to suffer like us......

************
Rajesh, thank you for your warning. I doubt the politically correct indoctrinated, self-hating people of white color, will listen and learn and turn from such destructive ways and save our nations from the curse of Islam and such self-righteous tolerance that will be the death of us all!

Behind the Veil of Islam
Ohio Mosque Promotes Murder!
Toledo, Islam, and Terrorists


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

The German Ethnic Model (IV) (Secessionists in Catalonia)

Newsletter 2009/12/02 - The German Ethnic Model (IV)

BARCELONA/BERLIN (Own report) - Catalonian secessionists are progressing toward the ethnic dismantlement of Spain with referendums to be held in 161 cities and communities. Scheduled for mid-December, referendums will be held in one-sixth of Catalonia's municipalities on a - non-binding for now - resolution on secession from Spain and the founding an independent country. Secessionists in other parts of the country - the Basque Region and Galicia - are carefully watching what happens. The referendums are providing new impetus to the German strategy of restructuring Europe along ethnic lines. The Federal Republic of Germany provided Catalonian secessionism relevant support over the past few years, most recently, two years ago in the framework of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Berlin's foreign policy front organizations have long since catalogued the Catalan as a "Volksgruppe" (an ethnic entity) justifying eligibility to special rights. Catalan secessionists are being spoken of in the same breath as other ethnic minorities demanding similar autonomous rights, including the Bretons in France and the Welsh in Great Britain.

more
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56304

Bride, Father Arrested for Crime of Moving Lips on Temple Mount

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) A Jewish bride and her father were arrested on the Temple Mount the day before her wedding, after an Arab policeman claimed he saw the father muttering prayers and the bride nodding her head.

The father and daughter were being taken around the site on Wednesday morning by her brother Eli, a volunteer who conducts regular tours at the Temple Mount, when suddenly they were accosted by the Jerusalem policeman.

“We were in the northern part, and I was showing them the archaeological evidence when suddenly a police officer came over to us, Mahmoud Hativ was his name, and h claimed that my father had muttered prayers. “We tried to argue with him and said it wasn’t true, but he said, ‘You can’t fool me,’ and insisted that my father had prayed,” Eli told Israel National News.

“My sister was just standing there silently, not moving at all. She didn’t say a word. It was her first time at the Mount. Other cops came over, Mahmoud said that she had also been involved, and they decided to arrest them both,” he continued. “He let me go right away, because he couldn’t make any claim against me.” His sister and father were taken to the Kishla police station near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.

‘Lack of Will to Exercise Israeli Sovereignty’

“The fact that a father comes to the holiest place of the Jewish people and can be arrested simply for allegedly moving his lips is an outrage,” Eli said.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the holy sites of all religions have to be protected and respected – that explicitly includes the rights of Jews on the Temple Mount. Jerusalem police continue to ignore that ruling.”

Asked if he believes U.S. pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority had anything to do with the incident, Eli said, ‘No. It is a result of the lack of will of the Jerusalem police to exercise Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, not U.S. pressure on Israel. It is unheard of to arrest someone just for praying in their own religion. In the U.S. that wouldn’t fly. There is no public place in the U.S. where a Jew could not pray. It is unfortunate, and sad.”

The family, which immigrated to Israel from New York in 1996, lives in Beit Shemesh.

‘Police Misled Them to Sign Confession’

The two were held for several hours. At approximately 11:30 a.m., the two were ordered to sign a declaration which they were told said they would promise not to return to the Temple Mount for 15 days.

However, the father, who spoke with Israel National News from the courtyard of the police station while waiting to be questioned by the police commander, said that further examination of the paper showed they had been misinformed. The declaration actually said that they were confessing to have violated a law about disturbing the public order.

It was also made equally clear that if they did not sign the paper, they might not be freed for hours – perhaps not even in time for the young woman to make it to her own wedding.

Officers at Jaffa Gate Station Mocked the Bride

“The police officers talked very improperly to my daughter. She was very upset – in tears – and they ridiculed her. ‘What’s the matter, are you baby?’ they mocked her.” Her father immediately fired back, “That’s how you talk to someone?”

The father said that the officer in charge threatened to keep them longer in response. “Be careful,” the cop warned. “If you talk to me that way, I can keep you here for a few more hours.”

read more
************
This is what you deserve! Of course this whole situation, the latest episode, is an outrage. But it is to be expected when Jews and Israelis insanely tolerate the Muslim occuption of their ALLEGED most holy site. Supposedly it's the third most holy site to the Muslims and yet they care more for it than most Jews and Israelis! Under a proper Jewish government and leaders, there would be no dogs to bark at Jews upon the Temple Mount. Your choice.

Jews Must Demand Rights to Temple Mount
During a 1995 Root and Branch lecture in Jerusalem, Professor Nahum Rakover, author and then Deputy Attorney General of Israel, publicly agreed with me that it isn't illegal for Christians or Jews to pray upon the Temple Mount, even though it is forcibly prevented by the police.

Restore Israeli Sovereignty Over Temple Mount
The Wakf, the militant Muslim authority that oversees Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site and Islam's alleged third holiest site (following Mecca and Medina) continue to show blatant disregard for Jewish, Christian and biblical history and non-Muslim sensitivities.

A House of Prayer For All Peoples?
Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That's right! Only Muslims have unlimited access to Judaism's most holy site. Only the Koran is permitted within. The Tanach (Jewish Scripture, known to much of the world as the "Old Testament") and Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are forbidden. Yet Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people.

Taking a stand for the Temple Mount!

Open Europe press summary: 9 December 2009

Europe

EU civil servants threaten to strike next Monday over 3.7% pay rise
De Standaard reports that civil servants in the European Council, which form part of the EU's 38,000 civil servants, have threatened to strike to demand a wage increase of 3.7%. It would potentially take place next Monday morning at the entrance of the European Council building at Place Schuman in Brussels. They have called on their colleagues from the European Commission and the European Parliament to join them.

The article notes that fifteen EU member states, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, have blocked the planned rise in salaries, pensions and other allowances, but suggests that it looks likely that national governments will have to agree to the pay rise, because they are contractually bound to the agreement and could likely lose the case if it went to the European Court of Justice. Trade unions are demanding that member states "respect the rules".

The member states are resisting because the wages of national civil servants are being frozen or cut. The national governments claim that because of the economic crisis, an exceptional clause in the civil servants' statute should enter into force. The clause states that "in times of serious and sudden deterioration of the economic and social situation" in the EU, the Commission can impose a new wage proposal.

In an article in El Mundo, Brussels correspondent María Ramírez speaks to Franceso Lanniello, who has 38 years of experience working at the Commission and is President of the trade union, Renovation and Democracy. Mr Lanniello defends the strikes saying, "The fact that they lower our salaries will not help raise anything...this money has already been put aside, it will end up being lost in the EU budget and will go on milk quotas."
El Mundo Standaard Standaard 2 Le Monde OE blog

Spanish Europe Minister: EU now has a "real Foreign Minister"
Spain has said that the main goal during its EU Presidency - to commence on 1 January - is to get the bloc's new 10-year economic strategy agreed, EUobserver reports. The current strategy, known as the Lisbon Agenda, expires next year, and Spain wants tougher measures to ensure that member states meet their targets. "The new strategy should be based not only on targets ...but on governance," Diego Lopez Garrido, Spain's Minister for European affairs, said.

He also said Spain will push for a more ambitious social agenda in order to "close the gap between Europe and the people", including pushing through the new anti-Discrimination Directive. Mr Lopez Garrido said the Spanish Presidency is going to put together an action plan for implementing the 'Stockholm Programme' for freedom - a series of far-reaching proposal in justice and home affairs. The Stockholm Programme is due to be adopted at the 10-11 December EU summit.

The Spanish will also have as a priority to convert the EU into "a genuine global player." In particular, Spain wants to finalise the European External Action Service - which according to Garrido "could be the brightest, strongest diplomatic service in the world" - before April. He also said that for the first time, the EU now has "a real Foreign Minister".

Meanwhile, the Coulisses de Bruxelles blog notes that the Spanish EU Presidency, "wishes to resurrect the cult of secrecy that marked the beginning of Community cooperation", citing the fact that the Spanish government is pressing for more secretive Council meetings. It says the Presidency will exclude the press from 'informal' ministerial meetings, to allow European leaders to freely negotiate.

Traditionally, the 'informal' meetings were an opportunity for EU ministers to meet to get to know each other, particularly whenever a new country took up the rotating EU Presidency. However, notes Quatremer, over time they became more and more formal and ministers began to take important decisions about the agenda for the coming months, despite still being called 'informal' meetings, and the media were slowly allowed more access. However, the Spanish government has said it wants to end the press conferences and media access to the meetings, even though policy will still be decided there.
EUobserver EurActiv Coulisses de Bruxelles The Parliament Open Europe research

PA reports that Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet in Brussels ahead of tomorrow's European Council summit, after a mooted Sarkozy visit to London for talks was dropped last Friday.
No link

Cameron: EU using crisis to pursue "massive land grab in terms of regulation"
At a conference yesterday, David Cameron vowed to fight against what he called the European Union's "land grab" on Britain's "precious" financial-services industry, in the wake of a series of proposals for more EU supervision and regulation of the financial markets. "You don't have to be some wide-eyed Euro-skeptic to realize that Europe tends to use these sorts of events for the opportunity of a massive land grab in terms of regulation" and some politicians in Europe have "always had their eyes on the City of London," Cameron said.
WSJ WSJ 2 Times

Dutch Parliament calls for government to oppose EU-wide tax on SMEs
The Dutch Parliament has called on the Dutch government to oppose Commission plans for an EU-wide tax on SMEs, according to Nu.nl. The article reports that "taxes which are being levied throughout the whole EU, should make the European Union more 'visible' to the population", but the article quotes Dutch MP Harry Van Bommel objecting to the proposed tax saying: "this will not create more support for the EU, but only less".
Nu.nl Telecompaper

Greece debt rating falls to 10 year low
Ratings agency Fitch yesterday cut Greece's long-term debt to BBB+ from A minus. It marked the first time in 10 years that the country has seen its rating pushed below an A grade. The agency said: "The weak credibility of fiscal institutions and the policy framework ... exacerbated by uncertainty over the prospects for a balanced and sustained economic recovery." It said the medium-term outlook was negative. The Guardian reports that within minutes of the decision becoming public knowledge, the Greek stock exchange began to tumble, with shares falling by 6%.

The Irish Independent reports that interest rates on the national debts of Ireland, Britain, Spain, Italy and Portugal all rose yesterday following the news. EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said: "A difficult situation in one euro-area member state is a matter of common concern for the euro area as a whole. It is clear that Greece faces very substantial economic and fiscal challenges ... but more measures are required".
Guardian Irish Times Irish Independent EUobserver BBC AFP FT Alphaville Le Figaro Handelsblatt

Michel Barnier to face EP grilling to test ability to set aside national interest
The FT reports that, at European Parliament hearings next month to confirm incoming EU Commissioners, new Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier will be grilled over how he intends to resolve the accounting dispute between the EU and the US. Continental banks, for example, are hostile to "fair value" - or mark-to-marketing accounting. He will also be questioned on plans to bring down the costs of securities market trading in Europe and increase transparency through improvements on the clearing and settlement side. Both issues have divided Europe's financial services sector and will test Mr Barnier's willingness to set aside national interests as an EU Commissioner, according to the article.

Spain's Joaquin Almunia, who becomes Competition Commissioner, will also be grilled over how he plans to better separate the Commission's legislative, executive and investigative powers in the antitrust area - and whether he will consider a new, independent "European Cartel Office" to handle the implementation of competition rules.
Irish Independent Times FT

Iain Martin: Europe could end up making a significant difference in an election
In the WSJ, Iain Martin argues: "It might suit the Conservative leadership to pretend the EU is a subject of marginal interest. It could be anything but by polling day. Even if Europe ends up not impacting on the outcome of the election, the related question of party management afterward has the potential to upend a Cameron government with a nonexistent or small majority."

Meanwhile writing in the Times Daniel Finkelstein suggests that the notion that the Conservative poll lead is being undermined by its core vote turning to UK is mistaken: "The Tory vote dipped slightly in The Times Populus poll published yesterday, but UKIP stayed steady...UKIP is the reddest of red herrings."
WSJ WSJ 2 Times

Leaked draft agreement throws Copenhagen summit into "disarray"
The Guardian reports that the Copenhagen climate change talks are in "disarray" following the leak of draft documents, the so-called 'Danish text', that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations. The text is a draft proposal for the final political agreement that should be signed by national leaders next week.

The agreement was worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark. The agreement would hand effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank and depart from the Kyoto protocol's principle that rich nations should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. Instead, developing countries would commit to curbing emissions by 2020 in return for as yet unspecified amounts of financial assistance from the developed world.
Guardian Guardian 2 EUobserver EUobserver 2 EurActiv FT FT 2

The Irish Times reports that Romania's biggest opposition party is demanding a re-run of Sunday's presidential election, after filing allegations of widespread vote fraud with the country's constitutional court.
Irish Times Le Monde

Three Irish women are to bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, saying that the ban on abortion in Ireland violates the European Convention on Human Rights. After today's hearing, the final ruling is expected next year.
BBC

In an interview with El País, Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission says, "The crisis would have buried Europe if it wasn't for the welfare state: it forms the basis for the EU and the EU reinforces it. Social democracy has a problem with globalisation...Today it is more difficult to find new mechanisms to balance the state and market. They can only be supranational, and thus social democracy is European."
El País

The WSJ reports on the EU's rules on protection for regional products, such as Parma ham, and notes that it is illegal to make Stilton cheese in Stilton, because the protected name cheese can only be made at six creameries in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
WSJ

European Voice reports that talks between the EU and Norway over fishing quotas for 2010 broke down yesterday, with disagreement over the rights of Norwegian vessels to catch mackerel in EU waters the main reason for failing to reach an agreement, according to Norwegian officials.
European Voice

The BBC reports that EU ministers have called for Jerusalem to serve as the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state as part of a negotiated peace, but dropped an earlier reference stating explicitly that East Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state.
BBC Al Jazeera El Mundo

The FT reports that the Greek Cypriot-led government of Cyprus yesterday placed new obstacles in the way of Turkey's EU accession bid, declaring that it would not permit the start of accession talks in five policy areas unless Turkey changed its stance on the Cyprus dispute.
FT

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Open Europe is an independent think tank campaigning for radical reform of the EU. For information on our research, events and other activities, please visit our website: openeurope.org.uk or call us on 0207 197 2333.