Zuma's Christianity comments 'misinterpreted'

Mail & Guardian Online – Wed, Dec 21, 2011

http://za.news.yahoo.com/zumas-christianity-comments-misinterpreted-114700539.html

Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj has rubbished media reports about President Jacob Zuma's comments on Christianity, saying they were misinterpreted by "city slicker" journalists.

"The president speaks in deep Zulu on occasion and his message is often lost in translation," Maharaj told the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday.

The Times reported on Wednesday that Zuma had slated Christianity, saying it brought on the existence of orphans and old-age homes.

At a launch of a road and crime safety awareness campaign at KwaMaphumulo in KwaZulu-Natal, he was quoted as saying, "As Africans, long before the arrival of religion and [the] gospel, we had our own ways of doing things."

"Those were times that the religious people refer to as dark days but we know that, during those times, there were no orphans or old-age homes. Christianity has brought along these things," he said.

"We have passed laws that prohibit you as a parent [from using] corporal punishment. Today, when, as a parent, you bring your child [to] order by using corporal punishment, you are breaking the law, but the person who passed that law cannot raise your child the way you want to."

Zuma said while he did not blame such legislation, "I can't be diplomatic about this. It's a fact."

Honorary pastor
Zuma, who in 2007 was ordained as a honorary pastor at a meeting of independent charismatic churches in Durban, told the crowd that South Africans should return to the "old way of doing things" because modernity had been harmful on society.

Maharaj said in a statement, "Zuma said that while we welcome the advent of Western culture, some useful traditional ways of doing things and aspects of African culture were undermined or even eroded, some of which were important for the cohesion of communities."

"The president indicated among other things that Western culture had brought about the end of the extended family as an institution, leading to the need for government to establish old-age homes, orphanages and other mechanisms to support the poor and vulnerable.

"He added that even poverty was an unknown factor as neighbours were always ready to assist each other, giving one another milk or cattle where needed," said Maharaj.

He said that it was "mischievous" to draw a conclusion that Zuma had rejected or negated Christianity. "The president was simply asserting African culture ... and lamenting the neglect of African culture."

Maharaj told the M&G the misunderstanding was indicative of the "differences" in South Africa's linguistic heritage.

"This is all about coming to terms with our multicultural society," he said.

Dominic Mahlangu, deputy editor of the Times, said they stood by their story.

"When the president switched from English to Zulu, our reporter, who is fluent in Zulu, quoted him directly. The statement isn't actually denying it, they just wanted to over-explain it," he said.

Zuma has long history of using religious terminology to promote the ANC.

At a rally in Mpumalanga in June 2009 Zuma said that the ANC "will rule until Jesus comes".

In February this year, Zuma caused outrage after he apparently tried to woo Eastern Cape voters for the local elections by telling them they would go to heaven if they voted for the ANC; and conversely would experience fiery damnation if they did not.

A Democratic Alliance transcript of Zuma's remarks during the voter registration drive in Mthatha claimed he said: "When you vote for the ANC, you are also choosing to go to heaven. When you don't vote for the ANC you should know that you are choosing that man who carries a fork ... who cooks people.

"When you are carrying an ANC membership card, you are blessed. When you get up there, there are different cards used but when you have an ANC card; you will be let through to go to heaven."

At the time, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said that if the word "heaven" was inappropriate in a figurative sense, expressions such as 'marriage made in heaven', 'heavenly voices' and 'sweets from heaven' would not exist.

In December 2008, Zuma was compared to Jesus by Free State leader Ace Magashule, who said Zuma was suffering like Jesus Christ did.

"Jesus was persecuted. He was called names and betrayed. It's the same kind of suffering Mr Zuma has had to bear recently, but he's still standing strong. He's not giving up."

At the time Zuma was involved in appealing with a Supreme Court of Appeal case where he was defending a high court ruling that saw graft charges dropped against him.

The ruling was later upheld.

Magashule said at the time he was not saying Zuma was Jesus. "He can't be Jesus. I merely compared the kind of persecution that had to be endured." -- additional reporting by Sapa

The Vatican Wants to Lay its Hands on Jerusalem

The Vatican is now reiterating demands for control of religious sites in Jerusalem. Jordan's occupation 1948-1967 didn't bother them. 

15/12/2011 -  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/150757#.TusItlb_kTB

Israel National News

“Peace negotiations in the Middle East must tackle the issue of the status of the holy sites of Jerusalem”, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue, declared several days ago in Rome.

The Vatican’s former foreign minister asked to place some Israeli holy places under Vatican authority, alluding to the Cenacle on Mount Zion and the garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

The first site also houses what is referred to as King David’s tomb. 

“There will not be peace if the question of the holy sites is not adequately resolved”, Tauran said. “The part of Jerusalem within the walls – with the holy sites of the three religions – is humanity’s heritage. The sacred and unique character of the area must be safeguarded and it can only be done with a special, internationally-guaranteed statute”.

The Israeli government and the Vatican are deadlocked in discussions over the status of the religious sites. Vatican officials are now reiterating their demand for control over the religious sites in the ancient and holy city founded by King David as the capital of ancient Israel and now the capital of the reestablished Jewish state.

Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, declared that Israel might consider giving the Vatican “a greater role” in operating the sites. In the last weeks, the Roman Catholic Church’s authorities increased their political initiatives for Catholic control over some sites in Jerusalem.

The Vatican’s former arcibishop in Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, just promoted an appeal to the European Union and United States to “stop the Hebraization of Jerusalem”.

Two weeks ago Msgr. David-Maria Jaeger, who was recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Vatican’s highest court, talked in Washington about a current U.S. Supreme Court case over whether an American boy born in Jerusalem should add Israel after the name of the historic city on his U.S. passport. Jaeger said that the question about Jerusalem is not “whether it is the capital of Israel, it is a question of whether it is a part of a national territory”.

A few days earlier, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, gave a speech to greet the bishops of Europe and North America during their annual pilgrimage in Israel, in which Twal denounced “the Israeli right wing invading more and more of Jerusalem and trying to transform it into an only Hebrew-Jewish city, excluding the other faiths”.

Claudette Habesch, the Caritas general-secretary in Jerusalem, a Vatican NGO that works in social activities, just released an interview to Zenit news agency, in which he “christianized” the Palestinian Intifada against “what we call the Checkpoint of Humiliation”.

In September, Patriarch of Jerusalem Twal was at the White House for a meeting with the American administration as well as to support the PA statehood bid at the UN. Twal repeated Benedict XVI’s speech of May 13, 2009 in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, one of the most political speeches ever pronounced by Ratzinger during his pontificate. It was given in front of the most eloquent symbol of the conflict: the security wall between Israel and the PA areas.

On that day the Pope spoke specifically of an “independent Palestinian state”.

The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican’s powerful agency for worldwide pilgrimages, just organized a “marathon for peace” in Jerusalem to protest against the security fence near Bethlehem and to support "Palestinian political rights". The march began on the Mount of Olives, “where the Last Supper took place”.

On December 1st, several Christian and Muslim dignitaries met in Beit Sahour for a conference on “How to live together in a future Palestinian state?”. Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, also attended the event organized by Al-Liqa, a Vatican ecumenical center based in Bethlehem.

Sabbah said that “recourse to the UN for a Palestinian state is a step toward peace”. Last summer, Latin Patriarch Twal took part in a meeting in London with Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, in which the Vatican envoy denounced the “more than 550.000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank” and “the demography of Jerusalem changing rapidly with the sacred space being threatened”.

In 2006, then Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, negotiated to give away the “holy basin” to the Vatican.

At the time, President Moshe Katzav, in the face of increasing public pressure, was forced to deny any plans to sign away the King David’s complex in Jerusalem.

It now appears that this option has once again surfaced. A major voice for the Vatican’s plan is Hanna Siniora, the elder statesman of Palestinian 'peace' activists, whose office is in the Vatican’s Tantur Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Jerusalem.

The site known as King David’s Tomb is the major target in the Vatican’s plan. It’s a complex of buildings of some 100,000 square feet where David and Solomon, and kings of Judea, are said to be buried, although this is disputed by historians.

The Upper Room, or Cenacle, as it is known, is on the second floor of the Crusader-era building. During his visit to Israel in 2000, Pope John Paul II held Mass there. The Roman Catholic Church has been fighting for more than 450 years to win back control over the sanctuary, which was seized from Franciscan monks during the Ottoman Empire's rule around 1551.

The building was granted to the Diaspora Yeshiva over 40 years ago, and yeshiva heads fear that the Vatican wishes to turn it into a pilgrimage site for hundreds of thousands of Catholics and hold religious services there.

The Vatican wants Israel relinquishing sovereignty at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The Holy See uses the expression “Holy Basin”, which refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian holy sites which the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton began reccomending be administered under a “special regime”.

The Obama plan also calls for resolving the two thorniest issues in the conflict by sharing Jerusalem and settling Arab refugees in Arab countries or a future Palestinian state, but not in Israel. According to Obama, the Old City of Jerusalem would be designated an “international zone”.

Israel’s President Shimon Peres, who has no authority, also agreed to hand over to the Vatican the sovereignty of the holy sites.

Any Vatican claim to a seat at the negotiating table is undermined by the complicity of the Vatican between 1948 and 1967. During the Jordanian occupation, Judaism’s holiest sites were desecrated and Jews were barred from visiting these shrines. The Jordanians built a hotel and a road through the Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives and they used the broken headstones to build the latrines in the construction of the Intercontintental Hotel, which likely rests on burial grounds.

As was its practice during the Holocaust under Pius XII, the Vatican then turned a deaf ear to these gross violations of Jewish human rights.

If Israel would cede Jewish sovereignty on the holy sites, it would mean returning to a time when Jerusalem was separated by a seven-kilometer wall, barbed wire, minefields and bunkers. A tourist visiting the holy city would have found signs warning “Danger - Frontier ahead!”, “Snipers nearby” and “shetah hahefker”, which in Hebrew means: No-Man’s Land. 

It would be Sarajevo, not the Holy City of Jerusalem. 

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, YNet, Frontpage and Commentary.

China VS America

China is preparred to go to war against anyone who attacks Iran!  Why protect a country that is constantly shouting death threats against Israel and America, prepared to kill innocent people?  What is wrong with this picture?

China must protect Iran even with WWIII

Sun Dec 4, 2011 - Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/213760.html

A professor from the Chinese National Defense University says if Iran is attacked, China will not hesitate to protect the Islamic Republic even by launching the Third World War.

Major General Zhang Zhaozhong said, "China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War."

The United States and Israel have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike, based on the allegation that Iran's nuclear program may consist of a covert military agenda.

Iran has refuted the allegations, saying that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Over the past weeks, Israel has renewed its aggressive rhetoric against Iran. On November 21, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that "time has come" to deal with Iran.

Israeli President Shimon Peres also threatened on November 6 that an attack against Iran is becoming "more and more likely."

Iranian officials have promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.

 

Aliens use Earth as 'battleground'

NOTE: Aliens ARE DEMONS!

2011-11-25 22:27
News 24 - http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Aliens-use-Earth-as-battleground-20111125

Johannesburg - Earth has become the battleground for extra-terrestrials to advance their own political agenda for the future of the planet, the country's first UFO science and consciousness conference heard in Johannesburg on Friday.

"There's a battle for Earth by some interesting dark forces," said author, scientist and researcher Michael Tellinger, who organised the conference.

"All the governments in the world are puppets and instruments to implement the will of a small group of individuals. The royal political bloodline goes back thousand of years."

He said the royal political bloodline was a small group of families whose origins could be traced to the first of mankind and who were inevitably in contact with the aliens.

He said the South African government was one of the most important puppets of these extra-terrestrials.

This was because the country was rich in gold and diamonds.

"We are at the heart of this global control because of our mineral resources."

All speakers on the first day of the conference agreed that, like humans who had the potential to be both good and bad, so too was the population of galactical beings.

Extra-terrestrials were also not dissimilar to politicians, who pushed their own agenda for material gain.

"They came to Earth looking for gold. We are all still obsessed with gold."

Tettinger said research showed that the extra-terrestrial "Annunaki" (reportedly also known as the Jedi, the Nephilim, the Watchers or the Watchmen and referred to in the Bible in Genesis) came to Earth around 300 000 years ago to look for gold.

They were also responsible for cloning their own genetic structures and creating mankind.

Bio-weapons

Offering a first-hand account of her experiences of attempts by extra-terrestrials to control the mind and manipulate actions of humans, the great granddaughter of former United States president Dwight Eisenhower, Laura Eisenhower, said governments were trying to keep this under wraps.

"Extra-terrestrials have been working with governments for a while," she said, adding that treaties with the other-worldly beings were signed every 10 years.

She said natural faults in the Earth were being manipulated to produce catastrophes like tsunamis and earthquakes using "Haarp technology" or bio-weapons.

According to the website www.haarp.net, Haarp technology is a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam used to heat the upper atmosphere and bounce elecromagnetic waves back to Earth.

"As consciousness expands, we invoke and become more in contact with our universal family," said Eisenhower.

She said she was recruited by an agent in 2006 to take part in a mission to a Mars colony.

However, she was able to break free from the mind control techniques.

She said people had been teleported to Mars since the 1970s and that the size of the population there was continuing to shift and expand.

Speaking on a Skype feed from a ranch in the United States, leading Ufologist James Gilliland agreed that dark forces were at play.

This was evident by increasing changes in the Earth's climate and in the astral makeup of the universe.

However, he said, another type of extra-terrestrial agent was seeking to prevent Earth's destruction or the depopulation of humankind.

"There's definitely something disturbing the Earth. The star patterns are changing, definitely something is going down. The Earth is doing a major wobble."

However, it was with the help of positive agents that humans would be able to ignite their consciousness and become enlightened to the dangers, but also the opportunities that a new world era could bring.

"Basically we need to rise to the occasion. We are all in the process together. We are in the process of contact. We are getting ready for a huge reunion with our greater ancestors of men." "... All we need to do together is to reclaim our divinity," Gilliland said

- SAPA

"TODAY, As In The Days Of Noah?"

http://www.kanaanministries.org/downloads/?did=233

 

Poorest poor in US hits new record: 1 in 15 people

Where is the middle-class?  Is it only the rich and the poor?

Yahoo News - 04th November 2011

Click on below link to read the article

http://news.yahoo.com/poorest-poor-us-hits-record-1-15-people-040233161.html

Pope Hosts Global Inter-Religious Meeting

NOTE: There is only ONE God and He is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He came in the flesh to die for our sins and His Name is Yeshua/Jesus Who is the Truth, the Way and the Life.  We can only enter into the Fathers presence through the Name of Yeshua/Jesus.  Not all religions lead to the same God.  There is no other way!  The Pope aint no servant of the King.  According to the Book of Revelations in the Bible, the world powers will try to mobilize a ONE WORLD ORDER AND ONE WORLD RELIGION, THE HARLOT!

Posted Thursday, October 27th, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Pope Benedict has joined 300 religious leaders from around the world at a global inter-religious meeting in northern Italy to make a common call for peace and renounce terrorism and violence in the name of religion.
The gathering Thursday in Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, comes on the 25th anniversary of a call by Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul, for a day-long prayer for peace. It was attended by religious representatives, ranging from Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jews, to followers of Taoism, Confucianism and representatives of traditional religions from Africa and the United States.
The General Secretary of the International Conference of Islamic Scholars says religion is not the cause of the Earth's problems.

Pope Benedict acknowledged that violence had been used in the name of the Christian faith in the past.
The Assisi gathering differed from John Paul's interfaith meeting in 1986 as it did not include common prayers among the delegates. Pope Benedict disapproves of members of different faiths praying in the presence of one another, so Thursday's meeting had the participants pray in separate areas.
Traditional Catholics condemned the meeting, as they did in 1986, saying they were against the pope inviting leaders of “false” religions to pray to their Gods for peace.
Pope Benedict had objected to and did not attend the original 1986 event when he was a cardinal.

This Ridiculous Online Piracy Law That Blocks Websites Without Warning May Actually Pass Congress

Business Insider - http://www.businessinsider.com/stop-online-piracy-act-2011-10

27th October 2011

The House is getting ready to discuss a new anti-online piracy bill that will allow independent parties to cut off websites accused of posting copyrighted material.

The bill, called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), is designed to skirt around the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

SOPA will go before the House Judiciary Committee on November 16. From what we've read, it has a decent chance of passing.

Here's how the bill works:

Right now, under the DMCA, a copyright holder can request a website remove material he or she owns. If the website refuses, the matter can go to court.

SOPA gets around this by allowing the third party to go directly to advertisers, credit card companies, and ISPs to effectively shut down a website's lifeline when it's suspected of posting copyrighted material. There's no need to go to court either.

For example, under SOPA, a copyright holder can go directly to Google and ask them to block all Google ads from a website that is suspected of carrying copyrighted works. If it's a commercial site, credit card companies and services like PayPal have the right to block all payments.

It's a classic "shoot first, ask questions later" move, and has the potential to be harmful to sites and services such as Dropbox that depend on user uploaded content.

Some other alarming bullet points from SOPA:

• Search engines can be required to block accused websites from results.

• Internet service providers can be required to block accused websites from their customers.

• Payment companies don't need a request from a copyright holder to block a website. Instead, they can do so on their own if the suspect a website may be posting copyrighted work without permission.

You can read the full bill here for more detail.

You can also check out the House Judiciary Committee's page on the bill here.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/stop-online-piracy-act-2011-10#ixzz1c3hw7wCZ

Nightly News: OWS in Canada, Dollar Falls, Americans Support Second Amendment

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars Nightly News - http://www.infowars.com/nightly-news-ows-in-canada-dollar-falls-americans-support-second-amendment/
October 27, 2011

On the Thursday, October 27 edition of Infowars Nightly News, Alex talks with Dan Dicks of the alternative media outfit Press for Truth about the Occupy Wall Street movement in Canada. Press for Truth has covered Occupy Toronto and the symbolic take over of the financial district. 

Alex covers the casino roller-coaster stock market and the fall of the dollar after the EU agreed on write-downs as it grapples with Greece and the debt crisis. 

Other topics covered on tonight’s show include:

The hypocrisy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama bombing Libya, a war crime resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and the maiming of countless others.

The Stop Online Piracy Act introduced in Congress and its ramifications for the First Amendment.

DHS boss Napolitano’s knowledge of the ATF’s gun-running to Mexican drug cartels despite her claim she did not know until only recently about the op.

A new scientific study revealing that influenza vaccines only prevent the disease in 1.5 out of every 100 adults.

A Gallup poll demonstrating that a majority of Americans support the Second Amendment and a full 49% own a firearm. 

Turkey earthquake - Israel flying out aid to Turkey

Note: Now it makes you think how wonderful Israel can be even when the whole world is pointing fingers at her, accusing her, that she can swallow her pride and help her enemies!!!  

Turkey: It would be completely wrong to say that we refused Israel's offer of aid due to other issues.

26 October 11 10:22, Globes' correspondent - http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000692364&fid=1725

This afternoon, the first Israeli assistance airlift was due to fly out to the disaster area in Eastern Turkey with portable homes and buildings. Ankara has requested help from Israel and 30 other countries to repair damage from the strong earthquake that has caused the death of more than 400 people so far. 

 Turkey is mainly interested in receiving portable homes and buildings to house refugees whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake, as well as equipment for rescuing people trapped under the rubble. The office of Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said that, "After receiving a request from the Turkish government in Ankara, it instructed the defense establishment to fly out special aid to Turkey following the earthquake."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem also confirmed the official Turkish request for aid. For now, large-scale aid organized by the Home Front Command that Israel usually offers in similar situations worldwide is not being sent.
At the beginning of the week, Turkey rejected Israel's offer to assist in rehabilitation efforts at the disaster site. Turkish vice president Bulent Arinc subsequently explained that his country did not refuse Jerusalem's offer. "A refusal of humanitarian aid is not a correct or proper action," he told reporters in Ankara. "We do not currently have the best relations with Israel, but still, to refuse this type of humanitarian aid form the Israeli government in the face of a disaster - that is a wrong and improper response. But it would be completely wrong to say that we refused their offer due to other issues." 

In the same tone, a Turkish official told Reuters, "We told all the countries that offered us aid, including Israel, that we are requesting specific items to be used in emergencies, like portable homes and buildings, containers, and tents." 

In addition to the international aid, efforts at the disaster site are continuing to locate additional survivors among the rubble left by the earthquake. There are more than 2,000 rescue workers at the site - most from the Red Cross, and the rest are Turkish army personnel and volunteers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 26, 2011
 
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011

Turkey Earthquake 2011: Death Toll Rises To 534

The Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/turkey-earthquake-2011-death-toll_n_1034565.html

27/10/2011

ERCIS, Turkey — Rescuers, working under floodlights, pulled a 13-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building early Friday, over 100 hours after a massive earthquake leveled many buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 550 people.

A picture by the state-run Anatolia news agency showed a rescue team carrying, Ferhat Tokay, out of the debris, wearing a neck brace. In other pictures from a field hospital, he appeared conscious and looking at his rescuers.

Tokay's rescue came 108 hours after Sunday's 7.2-magnitude earthquake, the agency said.

The agency said the boy was injured but did not give further details. The collapsed building from which Tokay was rescued was in Ecris, the town worst hit by the quake.

The temblor has killed at least 550 people and injured 2,300 others, according to the country's disaster management, AFAD, website updated Thursday evening. Thousands of homeless in tents were struggling in the bitter cold as rain and snow brought on more hardship.

Television footage on Thursday showed a rescue team cheering and clapping as another young man, wearing a red sweater and strapped to a stretcher, was also carried out of the debris. His eyes were shut most of the time, but he opened them at one point.

The Anatolia agency identified the man as 18-year-old Imdat Padak. He was rescued by an Azerbaijani crew.

Padak was flown to the nearby city of Van and was dehydrated, but in good condition, according to the news agency.

Emergency officials said 187 have been rescued from the rubble. About 2,000 buildings have been destroyed and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for habitation.

More aid began to reach survivors, with Turkish authorities delivering more tents after acknowledging distribution problems that included aid trucks being looted even before they reached Ercis.

Families who did snag precious aid tents shared them with others. But some people spent a fifth night outdoors huddled under blankets in front of campfires, either waiting for news of the missing or keeping watch over damaged homes.

As survivors gathered pieces of wood to light campfires or stove-heaters, The Red Crescent and several pro-Islamic groups set up kitchens and dished out soup or rice and beans.

Sermin Yildirim, eight months pregnant, was sharing a tent with a family of four who were distant relatives, along with her own twins and husband. Her family was too afraid of returning to their apartment.

"It's getting colder, my kids are coughing. I don't know how long we will have to stay here," Yildirim said. "We were not able to get a tent. We are waiting to get our own."

Muhlise Bakan, 41, was not happy to share her tent with her husband's second wife, Hamide.

"I have four children, she has five," Bakan said. "We were sleeping in separate rooms at our house, and now we are sleeping side by side here."

However, she acknowledged the two women were now "closer" as they struggled together in hard times. Turkish law does not recognize second marriages, but some conservative men in the country's southeast still marry more than one wife in religious ceremonies.

Health problems increased the hardship.

"I am very sick, I need medicine," said Kevsel Astan, 40, who had a kidney transplant four years ago.

She said she was being treated at the state hospital until the quake struck. The damaged hospital was evacuated and doctors were focusing on emergency cases.

Burke Cinar, a sociologist with a Turkish foundation, said the group was trying to get tents for the families of 15 children with leukemia in Ercis.

Looking ahead, Turkey's weather agency predicted intermittent snowfall for the next three days.

Foreign assistance also began arriving. Israel, which has a troubled political relationship with Turkey, sent emergency housing units, blankets and clothing. Britain said it was dispatching 1,000 tents and Germany, Russia, Romania and Ukraine also contributed. A Japanese disaster rescue team was working alongside Turkish rescuers.

Saudi King Abdullah ordered a $50 million donation to help Turkey deal with the aftermath of the quake, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Syrians who had fled across the border to Turkey to escape violence in their homeland donated blood for the injured, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Search and rescue operations ended in the provincial capital of Van, state-run TRT television said. But searchers in bright orange raincoats continued digging through debris in Ercis, 55 miles (90 kilometers) to the north.

They pulled out the bodies of two dead teenage sisters and their parents who were holding hands, and a mother clutching her baby boy, according to media reports.

Two teachers and a university student were rescued from ruined buildings Wednesday. One of the teachers later died in the hospital.

Some media reports said rescuers pulled out a 19-year-old alive early Thursday, but rescue team chief Mustafa Ozden told The Associated Press the youth was rescued on Tuesday.

The region has been rocked by hundreds of aftershocks. On Thursday, a 5.4-magnitude tremor hit the neighboring province of Hakkari, sending people rushing out of buildings in panic. No damage was reported but NTV television said some people were slightly injured trying to escape through windows.

Turkish television stations, meanwhile, organized a joint aid telethon that brought in just under 62 million Turkish Lira ($37 million).

___

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.