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DAILY Prophecy News at a Glance Read about the ANTI Christ BIBLE Here The EU Religious Leaders are PROMOTING IT! |
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QUAKE, ROARING SEA, ... NOW PESTILENCES December 29, 2004 WorldNetDaily.com reports: “The United Nations warns epidemics will break out within days unless health systems in southern Asia can cope with tens of thousands of corpses and hundreds of thousands left homeless in the wake of the 9.0 quake-induced killer tsunami that struck 11 nations. ‘This may be the worst national disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas, so many vulnerable communities,’ said the U.N.'s Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland. ‘The longer term effects may be as devastating as the tsunami itself. Many more people are now affected by polluted drinking water. We could have epidemics within a few days unless we get health systems up and running.’ The crisis cuts across all human needs, say experts – water, sanitation, food, shelter and health. ‘We've had reports already from the south of India of bodies rotting where they have fallen and that will immediately affect the water supply especially for the most impoverished people,’ said Christian Aid emergency officer Dominic Nutt. Some affected areas have had communications cut. Others are so remote it is impossible to know the extent of the damage. Governments in all 11 nations hit by the killer waves are still trying to determine how many were killed in the devastation wreaked by Sunday's quake and the tsunamis it caused. But with relief officials warning of possible cholera epidemics and malaria, Dr. David Nabarro, head of crisis operations for WHO, told reporters in Geneva that ‘there is certainly a chance that we could have as many dying from communicable diseases as from the tsunami.’… ‘The initial terror associated with the tsunamis and the earthquake itself may be dwarfed by the longer term suffering of the affected communities,’ Nabarro warned. Hospitals and health services already are overwhelmed and may not be able to cope with people who fall ill with disease, he said. Relief organizations are distributing supplies over 11 countries in Asia and Africa, and the United Nations has said it will likely make its largest ever appeal for humanitarian funding in response to the disaster… The health of babies and young children is the greatest immediate concern. Estimates say one-third of those killed are children. Children are more at risk than adults from diseases that follow in the wake of polluted water, fractured sewers and exposure. ‘Even simple diarrhea and chest infections can prove fatal,’ said Dr. Vivien Walden, a health adviser to Oxfam. ‘In many places it is still raining and families do not have shelter. They have lost everything. They have no means of cooking and there is overcrowding. In these circumstances, children under five are very vulnerable.’…” View Original Article
ARAB ASTROLOGER PREDICTS BUSH ASSASSINATION December 29, 2004 WorldNetDaily.com reports: “A Tunisian astrologer who reportedly predicted the deaths of Princess Diana, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Yasser Arafat says President Bush will be killed by an assassin's bullet in 2005. So seriously are Hassan al-Sharibi's predictions taken in the Arab world that a similar prophecy about Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Mahmoud Abbas has resulted in increased security around the candidate to replace Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas' aides put a ‘great deal of credence’ in the prediction, according to a source quoted by the Jerusalem Post. However, the paper tempered its report by saying critics label Sharibi ‘a quack with flair who relies on logic and wishful thinking. After all, predicting Yassin's assassination – he was Israel's 'public enemy No. 1' – and the death of an already ailing Arafat are hardly major feats.’ Soothsaying is not unusual, nor forbidden, in Islam – as it is in Christianity and Judaism. Muslim caliphs relied on court astrologers as early as the eighth century, according to the report in the Jerusalem Post. Sharibi also predicted the sudden death of Saddam Hussein before his trial begins…” View Original Article
QUAKE RATTLED EARTH ORBIT, CHANGED MAP OF ASIA December 28, 2004 Agency France-Presse reports: “An earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said. The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Sumatra island Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 meters (66 feet), according to one expert. ‘That earthquake has changed the map,’ US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut told AFP. ‘Based on seismic modeling, some of the smaller islands off the southwest coast of Sumatra may have moved to the southwest by about 20 meters. That is a lot of slip.’ The northwestern tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the southwest by around 36 meters (120 feet), Hudnut said. In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said. ‘We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass,’ Hudnut said. Another USGS research geophysicist agreed that the Earth would have got a ‘little jog,’ and that the islands off Sumatra would have been moved by the quake…” View Original Article
QUAKE'S POWER = MILLION ATOMIC BOMBS? December 28, 2004 CNN reports: “Scientists describe Sunday's devastating earthquake off the island of Sumatra as a ‘megathrust’ -- a grade reserved for the most powerful shifts in the Earth's crust. The term doesn't entirely capture the awesome power of the fourth largest earthquake since 1900, or the tsunami catastrophes it spawned for coastal areas around the Indian Ocean. Despite its awesome power, the quake itself was not much of a surprise, scientists said Monday. Sumatra is one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world, sitting atop one of the handful of sites where several plates of the planet's crust overlap and grind. Colossal pressures build up over decades, only to release in a snap. ‘These subduction zones are where all the world's biggest earthquakes are produced,’ said geologist Kerry Sieh of the California Institute of Technology. ‘Sunday was one of the biggest earthquakes in the region in the past 200 years.’ How powerful? By some estimates, it was equal to detonating a million atomic bombs…” View Original Article
MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE SHAKES ISLAND December 24, 2004 The Australian reports: “The world's biggest earthquake in almost four years has struck 800km off the coast of Tasmania, Australian seismological officials said. Geoscience Australia said the quake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale, hit the Macquarie Rise in the Pacific Ocean at 1.59am (AEDT). The earthquake, which occurred half-way between Australia and Antarctica, was felt throughout Tasmania, seismologist Cvetan Sinadinovski said. It caused buildings in parts of the state to shake for up to 15 seconds, he said. No one was injured in the quake and structures were in no danger of collapsing because it struck so far off the coast. ‘If it happened underneath a population centre in Australia, this would probably have destroyed a whole city,’ Dr Sinadinovski said. ‘In terms of size, this could have been more than 30 times stronger than the Newcastle event of 1989.’ It was the biggest quake since one occurred off the coast of Peru in early 2001, Dr Sinadinovski said. He said large earthquakes were common in the Macquarie Rise region, occurring every one or two years. ‘This was an inter-plate earthquake between Indo-Australian and Pacific plates,’ he said. ‘The last earthquake of similar magnitude in the Macquarie Rise region was in 1924. The quake originally registered as 7.8 on the Richter scale but had been upgraded to 8.1 this morning, he said…” View Original Article
Asian Tsunamis Kill 1000's People
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Legions of rescuers spread across Asia Monday after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles, killed nearly 14,000 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century. The death toll in eight nations in southern Asia - and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost - steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years. Signs of the carnage were everywhere. Dozens of bodies still clad in swimming trunks lined beaches in Thailand. Villagers in Indonesia picked through their destroyed homes amid the smell of rotting corpses. Rescuers elsewhere found victims wedged in trees and littering beaches. Some 25,000 soldiers and 10 air force helicopters searched for victims in Sri Lanka, where more than a million people were driven from their homes. Another million people were reported homeless in Indonesia. Thai warships steamed toward outlying islands to rescue survivors, while the Indian air force used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken seashore areas. At Thailand's beach resorts, packed with Europeans fleeing the winter cold at the peak of the holiday season, families and friends had tearful reunions Monday after a day of fear that their loved ones had been swept away. Katri Seppanen, 27, of Helsinki, Finland, walked around barefoot, in her salt water-stained T-shirt and skirt, at the Patong Hospital waiting room where she spent the night with her mother and sister. She had a bandaged cut on her leg. "The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was - a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said a tearful Seppanen, who was on the popular Patong beach with her family. The wave washed over their heads and separated them.
MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE SHAKES ISLAND December 24, 2004 The Australian reports: “The world's biggest earthquake in almost four years has struck 800km off the coast of Tasmania, Australian seismological officials said. Geoscience Australia said the quake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale, hit the Macquarie Rise in the Pacific Ocean at 1.59am (AEDT). The earthquake, which occurred half-way between Australia and Antarctica, was felt throughout Tasmania, seismologist Cvetan Sinadinovski said. It caused buildings in parts of the state to shake for up to 15 seconds, he said. No one was injured in the quake and structures were in no danger of collapsing because it struck so far off the coast. ‘If it happened underneath a population centre in Australia, this would probably have destroyed a whole city,’ Dr Sinadinovski said. ‘In terms of size, this could have been more than 30 times stronger than the Newcastle event of 1989.’ It was the biggest quake since one occurred off the coast of Peru in early 2001, Dr Sinadinovski said. He said large earthquakes were common in the Macquarie Rise region, occurring every one or two years. ‘This was an inter-plate earthquake between Indo-Australian and Pacific plates,’ he said. ‘The last earthquake of similar magnitude in the Macquarie Rise region was in 1924.The quake originally registered as 7.8 on the Richter scale but had been upgraded to 8.1 this morning, he said…” View Original Article
AMERICAN PASSPORTS WITH BIOMETRIC DATA TO DEBUT IN SPRING December 23, 2004 The International Herald Tribune reports: “New American border-crossing documents will debut in the spring, when U.S. officials and diplomats begin carrying biometric passports with personal identifying data in a microchip embedded in the cover. By next autumn, U.S. citizens applying for new passports or seeking renewals will begin receiving the biometric documents, which feature facial recognition data that can be read by electronic scanners. Around seven million of the estimated 55 million to 60 million passports held by Americans will be converted to the new biometric passports each year, according to the U.S. State Department. The new technology will come at a price: Congress has authorized a $12 surcharge to the $55 fee for renewing a passport for the standard 10-year period. To get the system running, the federal government has contracted four companies to test the smart-card technology used in the new passports, as well as the software and antenna system needed to read the biometric information. The new passports will carry biometric identifying information in a microchip containing a digitized photograph of the passport holder's face, as well as the personal data that now appears on the document's inside pages…” View Original Article
INSURGENTS ATTACK SUDANESE OIL IN DARFOUR December 22, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Rebels have succeeded in attacking a Sudanese oil facility in the war-torn province of Darfour. A rebel group has taken responsibility for an attack on Dec. 18 on an oil pumping station in southern Darfour. The facility was located in Sharif and was the first by Darfour rebels against Sudan's energy sector. The Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalization said it chose the facility because of the revenues produced by the oil sector. Rebel groups have asserted that Sudan's oil sector -- which produces 320,000 barrels of oil per day -- has financed the military campaign in Darfour. Sudanese officials have confirmed the attack, in which 15 people were said to have been killed. The officials said the strike did not shut down the facility…” View Original Article
ISRAEL FACES PROSPECT OF MASSIVE UNREST December 22, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Israel faces the prospect of massive resistance to the government's plan to expel about 10,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in 2005. Leaders of the estimated 250,000 Jews in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have called for a campaign of civil disobedience to resist the evacuation of the areas. The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, citing U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India's Mahatma Ghandi, has urged Israelis to risk imprisonment rather than cooperate with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for a military withdrawal from and expulsion of Israeli residents of the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. Officials said the campaign against Sharon's expulsion plan could harm Israel's strategic interests. They said among the non-lethal options that could be taken by withdrawal opponents include the refusal by tens of thousands of reservists to serve in the army, resignation by combatants of elite forces, sabotage of military facilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the intimidation of government employees responsible for the withdrawal plan. ‘The year 2005 is not likely to be an easy year for the people of Israel,’ Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. ‘It is likely to create rifts. The biggest challenge is to maintain unity of the people. There is no room for a split. Every Israeli citizen must preserve the rules of democracy.’…” View Original Article
BLAIR TO LAUNCH NEW ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PUSH December 22, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “British Prime Minister Tony Blair launches a new bid to advance the Middle East peace process later Tuesday, with visits to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Mr. Blair, who has made reviving the Middle East peace process a priority, is expected to meet with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, before heading to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian leaders. International diplomacy aimed at bringing Israel and the Palestinians together for peace talks have intensified since the death of Yasser Arafat last month. Earlier Tuesday, the British leader paid a surprise visit to Iraq, meeting with interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Baghdad and visiting British troops in the southern city of Basra. It was Mr. Blair's first visit to Baghdad. He has twice previously visited British troops stationed around Basra…”
NEW ERA OF OPPORTUNITY FOR ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS December 21, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “A historic breakthrough that might lead to an end of the bloodshed is possible, says Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern and international affairs at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Mr. Gerges says, ‘this is the beginning of a highly complex journey. It is very messy, risky and extremely unpredictable.’ Since the breakdown of talks at Camp David four years ago, the conflict has left more than three thousand Palestinians and over one thousand Israelis dead. But with new Palestinian leadership emerging after the death of Yasser Arafat and a second term for U.S. President Bush, Mr. Gerges and many other analysts believe this is a watershed moment. In an unusual overture, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he is ready to coordinate a pullout from the Gaza Strip with a future Palestinian government and foresees what he calls possible 'years of peace.' Most analysts agree that recent statements by the Palestinian presidential frontrunner Mahmoud Abbas, reflect a change in tone on the part of the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Abbas said the armed uprising against Israel was a mistake, and that any resistance against Israeli occupation should be through non-violent means. However, Mr. Abbas's position will need to be reinforced if he is to confront militant groups that attack Israelis, according to Steve Yetiv, professor of political science at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Mr. Yetiv says, ‘I think it is somewhat pointless to move ahead with a serious peace process until Mr. Abbas, who appears to be the leader in the January 9th elections, is strengthened. Mr. Abbas is not going to crack down on extremists if he does not have strength, and the Israelis who have fallen out of the peace process because of insecurity are not going to trust Mr. Abbas unless he is stronger.’…” View Original Article
U.S. INCREASES INTEL AGAINST ISRAEL December 21, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “The United States has increased intelligence operations against Israel as part of an effort to prevent a war in the Middle East. Western diplomatic sources said that over the last two years the U.S. intelligence community has increased monitoring of Israel's military and government. The sources said the move was ordered by the White House as part of an effort to prevent an escalation of the war with the Palestinians or a regional war that could begin with an Israeli attack on Syria. ‘There's been concern that Israel would pull a surprise on the United States with either an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon or a massive attack on the Gaza Strip,’ a diplomatic source said. ‘Washington doesn't want to be surprised and would rather know this information in advance and first hand.’ The sources said the result has been increased U.S. satellite monitoring of Israel to determine military movements, import and export of weapons, weapons tests and construction of housing in Israeli communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said the United States has also expanded the interception of signals communications from Israeli government and military facilities…”
PALESTINIANS RESUME MISSILE ATTACKS ON ISRAEL December 19, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Palestinian insurgents have resumed missile attacks on Israel. On Saturday, Hamas gunners fired five Kassam-class short-range missiles toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. The missiles landed in and around the nearby Israeli city of Sderot and nobody was reported injured. One of the missiles landed in a residential area and damaged a building. Hamas claimed responsibility for the missile strikes. ‘It was a miracle [that nobody was injured],’ Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal said. Earlier, Hamas said it launched Kassam missiles toward Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip. The movement said one of the missiles damaged a factory in the Israeli community of Nissanit in the northern Gaza Strip…” View Original Article
CHINA ISSUES NEW RELIGIONS RIGHTS RULES December 19, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “China has issued a new set of rules that state-media said would better protect religious freedoms in the officially atheist country. The official Xinhua news agency said Sunday that the Religious Affairs Provisions explicitly specify the rights of religious groups, religious sites, and people. They also offer guidance on religious affairs involving state and public interests. Xinhua called the rules a significant step forward in the protection of Chinese citizens' religious freedom. The U.S. State Department's Annual Report on Religious Freedom last year rebuked China for poor respect for religious freedom and interference and harassment of people who do not belong to state churches. China requires people to worship in state-sanctioned churches and cracks down on groups outside of the government's control…”
NATIONAL ID MAY BE IN THE CARDS December 17, 2004 The Detroit News reports: “Privacy advocates worry that provisions buried in the intelligence bill President Bush is to sign Friday will lead to a national identification card. Little-noted measures included in the legislation that reshuffles intelligence agencies order states to begin issuing new fraud-proof birth certificates, and new driver's licenses with standardized data encoded on them are set for 2006. The legislation also orders states to stop putting Social Security numbers on licenses. What data will be included on licenses and how it will be used in federal databanks is not yet clear. The legislation only requires the data to be ‘machine readable,’ leaving the issue of what data to collect to the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security. Regulations concerning fraud-proofing birth certificates are to be drafted by the Department of Heath and Human Services. ‘There's a problem,’ said Marc Rotenberg, a Georgetown University law professor who serves as executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington think tank. ‘There are two directions they can go here. One is to reduce the likelihood of fraud and counterfeiting of driver's licenses, which we all would applaud. Or they could link this all together in a new national database, which is what they should not do.’ Rotenberg called the measure ‘not quite half a step towards a national identification card’ because its full impact has not yet been determined. The bill, which Congress adopted earlier this month after stripping out controversial immigration provisions, carries out key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, including establishing standards for birth certificates and driver's licenses…” View Original Article
JAPAN, US SIGN MISSILE DEFENSE PACT December 17, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “Japan and the United States have signed an agreement to encourage cooperation on developing a missile defense system. Japanese Defense Minister Yoshinori Ono signed a memorandum of understanding Friday in Tokyo with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker. Under the agreement, Japan and the United States will exchange information on research, deployment and operations of a missile shield. The agreement comes one week after Japan adopted new defense policy guidelines that would allow the joint development of a missile defense system with the United States. The five-year defense outline allows the sale of missile defense components to the United States for production of a missile shield. Japan says other arms export cases will be considered on a case-by-case basis…” View Original Article
SHARON OPTIMISTIC ABOUT PEACE PROSPECTS WHILE VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN GAZA December 17, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has sounded a note of optimism about peace prospects in the coming year provided Palestinians stop violence against Israel. Speaking at an academic conference Thursday night in the Israeli coastal city of Herzliya Mr. Sharon sounded a note of optimism about what the future holds for Israelis and Palestinians. And, for the first time said that he wants to coordinate his disengagement plan with the Palestinians. Previously the prime minister had proposed a unilateral pullout of all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank. He told the gathering ‘in light of the new opportunities and potential of a new Palestinian leadership, Israel will be prepared to coordinate various elements relating to our disengagement plan with the future Palestinian government, a government which is ready and able to take responsibility for the areas which we leave.’ Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, who is in charge of negotiations with Israel, said the speech contained nothing new. A spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas called it ‘a declaration of war against the Palestinian people.’…”
SAUDIS IMPRISON CHRISTIAN CONVERT December 16, 2004 WorldNetDaily.com reports: “Saudi religious police arrested a 30-year-old citizen who converted from Islam to Christianity. Emad Alaabadi, who has a wife and four children, is in prison in Jeddah after his Nov. 29 arrest in the town of Hufus, reports International Christian Concern, a Washington, D.C.-based human-rights group. Alaabadi was driving his children home from school Nov. 29 when he was intercepted by police. The police escorted him home to drop off the children then took him to prison in Hufus before being transferred to Jeddah. The Saudi man made contact Dec. 4 with his mother in Australia, who said he sounded very weak. ICC said if Alaabadi's case is like others, he probably has been tortured as the religious police attemp to reconvert him to Islam. Saudis are forbidden by law from converting to another religion. The kingdom bars all public expression of religion, except for its strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. No church buildings are allowed, and religious police have cracked down at times on worship in private homes…” View Original Article
AUSTRALIA GETS CHRISTMAS TERROR WARNING December 16, 2004 CNN reports: “Australians have been given a specific warning to stay away from international hotels in Indonesia over the Christmas period for fear of a terrorist attack. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade gave the warning late Wednesday, saying it had intelligence that an attack was being planned. ‘We have received credible new information suggesting terrorists are ready to carry out an attack shortly in Indonesia, possibly targeting a Hilton Hotel,’ the department's travel warning said. ‘Other targets cannot be ruled out. In light of this information, Australians in Jakarta, and elsewhere in Indonesia, are advised to avoid all international hotels and other places where foreigners are known to gather.’ The British government also warned of a higher danger of terrorist attack in the Southeast Asian republic, the world's most-populous Muslim nation. ‘We continue to receive reports that terrorists in Indonesia are planning further attacks on Westerners and Western interests,’ Britain's Foreign Office said in an updated travel advisory. ‘We believe that there is a heightened risk of attacks in the lead up to and during this Christmas/New Year period and that these attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia, including locations frequented by foreigners.’ Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, speaking in Papua New Guinea where he was attending a conference, said the warning was based on credible information from intelligence…” View Original Article
'CHAOS IN IRAQ COULD PRODUCE ANOTHER HITLER' December 14, 2004 The London Daily Telegraph reports: “The chronic instability and widespread feeling of humiliation in Iraq could give birth to an ‘Iraqi Hitler’, the country's president, Ghazi al-Yawar, said yesterday as a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people in Baghdad. The explosion at the entrance of the ‘Green Zone’, the capital's fortified government and diplomatic compound, left 19 people wounded. All the victims were reported to be Iraqis. The blast came on the anniversary of the capture of Saddam Hussein. The arrest of the former Iraqi dictator has not stemmed the insurgency, which is concentrated on the Sunni triangle, with daily bombings, shootings and kidnappings. Mr. Yawar, who has in the past criticized US operations, said the political climate in Iraq could bring a new era of political fanaticism. ‘This could in the long term create an environment in which an Iraqi Hitler could emerge like the one created by the defeat of Germany and the humiliation of Germans in World War I,’ he told Asharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic newspaper…”
MPS TO VOTE ON 'LEGALIZED EUTHANASIA' BILL December 14, 2004 The Guardian UK reports: “MPs will today vote on a bill that critics claim could be a back door to legalized euthanasia. The mental capacity bill - which could become law before the election - gives legal status to ‘living wills’ and the power of third parties to tell doctors to withdraw treatment. Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs have a free vote, but the government faces a revolt among its own backbenchers, who object to being asked to vote on party lines on what many consider to be a matter of conscience. Christian lawyers and medics last night called for MPs to oppose the measures in the debate. Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, which represents more than 4,500 Christian doctors in the UK, said the bill meant doctors would have to withhold food and fluids even if they believed it inappropriate. Ninety-one MPs signed a petition started by the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, which said the bill should specifically prevent decisions to bring about death. But leading charities, including the Alzheimer's Society, Age Concern, Mencap and the National Autistic Society, insisted fears that euthanasia would be legalized were ‘misplaced and misguided’, and ministers insisted the bill would not change laws on assisted suicide. The constitutional affairs minister, David Lammy, has said there is a clear presumption in favor of life. The mental capacity bill introduces a legal presumption that everybody can make decisions about treatment unless proved otherwise. It enshrines the principle of ‘living wills’, meaning individuals could state their wishes not to have life-prolonging treatment if they later lost the mental capacity to refuse or consent. It would allow them to give someone else the power of attorney to make decision on their behalf, and doctors would have to apply to a court of protection to challenge the decision. The Labour MP Claire Curtis-Thomas, who is voting against the bill, has expressed concern that incapacitated people would be unable to change their minds. She has told how her mother, after suffering a stroke, signed a directive saying she wanted to be helped to die if she became incapacitated again. Five years later, in a similar situation, she had changed her mind and blinked out, ‘I want to live’. ‘In this country, we prosecute people who starve their dogs or cause them to die of thirst, but we are now suggesting doing it to our own relatives,’ Ms Curtis-Thomas said…” View Original Article
NORTH KOREA BLASTS US, RECONSIDERS TALKS December 13, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “North Korea has criticized recent reports of a crisis in its leadership as a U.S.-organized smear campaign. A statement from the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang Monday denies reports of mass defections by North Korean generals to China and called them part of a propaganda campaign designed to create instability. The Ministry says the campaign is forcing North Korea to reconsider its participation in talks with the United States - an apparent reference to the six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions. The statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency also denounced reports in Western news media that some of the many portraits of the Communist state's leader, Kim Jong-Il, have been removed from display in North Korean cities…” ARAB STATES REJECT U.S. REFORM DRIVE December 12, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Arab and Islamic states have rejected a U.S. effort to launch a democracy and reform campaign in the Middle East. Instead, Arab and Islamic states said reform and democracy in the region would be linked to the Arab-Israeli conflict. They dismissed a U.S. appeal that reform begin without any connection to political disputes in the region. A communiqué issued at the end of the ‘Forum for the Future’ conference held in Morocco on Saturday asserted that the Arab-Israeli conflict comprised the leading obstacle to reform and democracy in the Middle East. The statement said the 30 nations at the Rabat conference ‘reaffirmed that their support for reform in the region will go hand-in-hand with their support for a just, comprehensive and lasting settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict.’ The 20 Arab and Islamic participants at the conference demanded the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of an Israeli withdrawal from all areas deemed occupied. The statement cited United Nations Security Council resolutions that discussed the conflict. Israel was not invited to the conference and Iran refused to attend…” View Original Article
ABBAS AGAIN INSISTS ON RIGHT TO DESTROY ISRAEL December 11, 2004 The Jerusalem Newswire reports: “PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas has again insisted on the right to flood Israel with millions of Arabs labeled as ‘Palestinian’ refugees, and by doing so demographically destroy the Jewish state. ‘All Palestinian refugees must have the right to return to Palestine [sic] in line with UN Resolution 194,’ Abbas told the Beirut Daily Star in an interview on Thursday. [Translation of the interview was provided by IMRA.] This right ‘is not an issue for debate’ and ‘is a common goal’ of all Palestinian Arab factions, said Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen. In its response to the interview, the Zionist Organization of America pointed out UN resolution 194 falls under Chapter VI of the world body’s charter, making it a recommendation rather than a legally binding decree. Hailed by the West as a ‘moderate,’ the PA presidential election frontrunner first indicated he was unwilling to compromise on the ‘right of return’ during speech to the ‘Palestinian’ parliament on November 23. ‘We promise you [Yasser Arafat] that our heart will not rest until we achieve the right of return for our people and end the tragic refugee issue,’ Abbas said during a memorial parliamentary session for the deceased arch-terrorist. During a 1998 seminar at Al-Najah University in Shechem, senior Fatah Central Committee member Sakher Habash admitted the true meaning of the ‘right of return’ for the ‘Palestinian’ cause. ‘To us, the refugees issue is the winning card which means the end of the Israeli state,’ Habash said. Habash recognized that for this reason alone Israel had refused to even consider a ‘Palestinian’ right of return. Abbas is Fatah’s candidate in the upcoming January 9 PA election…” View Original Article
MIXED SIGNALS FOR FURTHER EU ENLARGEMENT December 11, 2004 The EU Observer reports: “As the EU looks set to open membership negotiations with Turkey at the end of next week, over a third of its citizens are opposed to further enlargement of the 25-nation bloc. Conducted in October and November, just months after the Union expanded by 10 countries, the poll shows that 35% of citizens are against further enlargement - with 53% in favor and 12% saying they do not know. Those against enlargement rises to 43% when citizens only from the 15 'old' member states are considered, according to a eurobarometer poll published on Friday (10 December). Austrians and Germans have the highest percentages of citizens against enlargement (62% and 57% respectively) - both countries have common borders with new member states. In France, where President Jacques Chirac has been fighting rising sentiment against Turkish EU membership - fifty-one percent said they are against further enlargement. This contrasts starkly with new member states, which tend to be strongly in favor of more EU expansion - with Poland at 78%, Lithuania at 76% and Slovenia at 75%. Replying to a question about whether respondents had been specifically asked about Turkey, EU Communications Commissioner Margot Wallström, who was presenting the results, said no. However, she added all EU institutions will have to ‘invest in creating more information and building the cultural bridges between Turkey and the European Union’. ‘To me that is the absolute key to success for further enlargement because there is so much ignorance and lack of information’, said Mrs. Wallström. The EU is expected to take on Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 while Turkey is not expected to join until at least 2015 - a decision on whether to open negotiations with Ankara will be taken at the EU summit on 16-17 December…” View Original Article
SCIENTISTS DEBATE BLENDING OF HUMAN, ANIMAL FORMS December 10, 2004 MSNBC reports: “In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins. In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human. In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their skulls. These are not outcasts from ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau,’ the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells in which a rogue doctor develops creatures that are part animal and part human. They are real creations of real scientists, stretching the boundaries of stem cell research. Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. They are the products of experiments in which human stem cells were added to developing animal fetuses. Chimeras are allowing scientists to watch, for the first time, how nascent human cells and organs mature and interact — not in the cold isolation of laboratory dishes but inside the bodies of living creatures. Some are already revealing deep secrets of human biology and pointing the way toward new medical treatments. But with no federal guidelines in place, an awkward question hovers above the work: How human must a chimera be before more stringent research rules should kick in? The National Academy of Sciences, which advises the federal government, has been studying the issue and hopes to make recommendations by February. Yet the range of opinions it has received so far suggests that reaching consensus may be difficult. During one recent meeting, scientists disagreed on such basic issues as whether it would be unethical for a human embryo to begin its development in an animal's womb, and whether a mouse would be better or worse off with a brain made of human neurons. ‘This is an area where we really need to come to a reasonable consensus,’ said James Battey, chairman of the National Institutes of Health's Stem Cell Task Force. ‘We need to establish some kind of guidelines as to what the scientific community ought to do and ought not to do.’…” View Original Article
MEMBERS OF REESTABLISHED SANHEDRIN ASCEND TEMPLE MOUNT December 9, 2004 Arutz-Sheva reports: “In a dramatic but unpublicized move Monday, members of the newly established Sanhedrin ascended the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. Close to fifty recently ordained ‘samuchim,’ members of the Sanhedrin, lined up at the foot of the Temple Mount Monday morning. The men, many ascending the Temple Mount for the first time, had immersed in mikvaot (ritual baths) that morning and planned to ascend as a group. Despite prior approval from the Israeli police who oversee entry to the Mount, the officers barred the group from entering the Mount together, saying they could only ascend in groups of ten. Many of the samuchim refused to ascend under the restrictive conditions, especially as a group of over 100 gentile tourists filed past the waiting rabbis and up onto the holy site. ‘It is unconscionable that on the eve of Chanukah, which celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple, we should once again be barred from worshipping – by our own people,’ Rabbi Chaim Richman of Jerusalem’s Temple Institute told IsraelNN’s Ezra HaLevi. The Sanhedrin, a religious assembly of 71 sages that sat from the time of the Holy Temple through 425 CE, was the highest Jewish legal-judicial tribunal in the Land of Israel. The great court used to convene in one of the Temple’s chambers in Jerusalem. On October 14, the Sanhedrin was reestablished for the first time in 1,600 years, at the site of its last meeting in Tiberius…”
ABBAS: WE WILL RULE PALESTINE FROM JERUSALEM December 9, 2004 The Jerusalem Newswire reports: “PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas Sunday reiterated his pledge to pursue Yasser Arafat’s goal of seizing control over eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian Arab state. Throughout the ‘peace’ process, sovereignty over the ancient Jewish capital has been a red line issue for Israel. Abbas also said that, after a ten-year delay, the PA would finally fulfill its obligations under the ‘Oslo’ agreements. Meanwhile, the Hamas terrorist organization rejected reports it was prepared to accept a ceasefire and recognize Israel’s right to exist within the Jewish state’s pre-1967 borders. ‘The true fealty to Arafat's memory would be to pursue his path to achieve Palestinian national goals, namely the establishment of a democratic state, with Jerusalem as its capital, that would live in peace and security next to Israel,’ Abbas told reporters in Ramallah Sunday after meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. During the past decade, Arafat vowed on numerous occasions to ‘march on Jerusalem with one million martyrs’ in order to wrest the city from Israeli control. Israel has declared Jerusalem its ‘eternal, undivided’ capital, and has made sovereignty over the city a red line in its peace negotiations with the ‘Palestinians.’ When former Prime Minister Ehud Barak put Jerusalem on the trading block in 2000, nearly half a million Israeli Jews converged on the city in a mass demonstration against the change in policy. While Jerusalem was for thousands of years the capital of Israel, it has never served as the capital of a sovereign Arab entity…”
SYRIA COORDINATES WITH SADDAM LOYALISTS December 10, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “The regime of President Bashar Assad has been coordinating with Saddam Hussein loyalists to send Sunni insurgents to fight the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Arab diplomatic sources said that despite assurances to Washington the Assad regime continues to facilitate the recruitment of Sunni insurgents from both Beirut and Damascus. The sources said Saddam loyalist have been allowed to maintain offices in Lebanon and Syria, where the recruits are trained and then sent to Iraq. ‘For Syria, the arrangement is ideal,’ a diplomatic source said. ‘The Bashar regime wants to get rid of as many Sunni extremists as they can and if they can fight and die in Iraq, the better off everybody is.’ The sources said about 2,000 Sunni insurgents have been sent to Iraq from Syria. They said the Assad regime obtains a fee for every recruit trained in either Lebanon or Syria and then sent to Iraq. Saddam loyalists pay the Syrian regime for the right to use Syrian-controlled territory for the war against the U.S.-led coalition…” View Original Article
AL QAEDA: INSURGENTS ESCAPED JEDDA ATTACK December 9, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Al Qaeda has asserted that several operatives escaped during the takeover of the U.S. consulate in Jedda. An Al Qaeda statement on the Internet claimed responsibility for the Dec. 6 strike on the U.S. diplomatic facility in the Saudi port city. The statement said an unidentified number of assailants fled before security forces regained control of the consulate compound. ‘They were able to withdraw from the consulate and reach a safe place, after losing two martyrs who covered the retreat of the Islamic warriors, three of whom were wounded and are being treated,’ the statement, signed by Al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, said. The Saudi Interior Ministry said the Al Qaeda cell consisted of five operatives. The ministry said three of the operatives were killed and two others were injured and captured…” View Original Article
PAKISTAN TEST FIRES MEDIUM RANGE NUCLEAR-CAPABLE MISSILE December 8, 2004 Agency France-Presse reports: “Pakistan successfully test fired a medium range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, capable of hitting targets deep inside rival India, the military said. The Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1) missile which can hit targets up to 700 kilometers (437 miles) away was launched from an undisclosed location, a military spokesman told AFP. The test was Pakistan's second in 10 days. Pakistan and rival India, who carried out tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in 1998, both conduct regular missile launches. ‘Pakistan today carried out a successful test fire of its indigenously developed, medium range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1),’ the military said in a statement. The test was to validate ‘additional technical parameters’ of the missile, which is already part of Pakistan's military inventory. Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said the launch was not meant to send any message to India. The two countries are engaged in a peace dialogue aimed at resolving all issues including the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir…” View Original Article 'BRAINWAVE' CAP CONTROLS COMPUTER December 7, 2004 BBC News reports: “A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. Four people, two of them partly paralyzed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ‘The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,’ said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought. The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which meant no surgery or implantation was needed. Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves or muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ‘The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorized wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,’ said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried…” View Original Article
IRAN LAUNCHES BIGGEST GROUND EXERCISE EVER December 7, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iran has launched what officials termed its largest military exercise ever. Officials said the Iran Army began the exercise on Dec. 3 in western Iran near the border with Iraq. They said the aim of the exercise was to demonstrate ground force capabilities and weaponry in an effort to deter any attack from the United States. The exercise was said to have tested a range of indigenous missiles, rockets, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks and unmanned aerial vehicles developed over the last decade. Officials said many of these weapons and platforms were introduced into service over the last two years. Officials said the exercise included 10 infantry divisions as well as artillery, missile and electronic warfare units. They said the air force was providing support for ground units as part of a demonstration of the interoperability between the services…” View Original Article
IAEA: NORTH KOREA MAY HAVE 6 NUCLEAR BOMBS December 7, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “There is growing concern that North Korea has reprocessed enough plutonium for as many as six nuclear bombs. This apprehension was emphasized in an American newspaper interview with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In an interview with The New York Times newspaper, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said he believes nuclear material his agency once monitored in North Korea has been converted for use in four to six nuclear bombs. Pyongyang kicked out IAEA inspectors nearly two-years ago, and shortly afterwards, removed 8000 spent nuclear fuel rods from a holding pond where they were being stored. This is the main reason IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Mr. ElBaradei's comments were not based on new evidence. ‘Unfortunately, we have no possibility to accurately check on what is going on in North Korea,’ she said. ‘In fact, no one does. All we can go by is assumptions, assumptions that are based, though, on a very good knowledge of what North Korea had, plutonium, what facilities it has, that is a re-processing facility, and what capabilities it has, and that are scientists with the know-how. So, one has to assume if there is a will there, there is an intention, that they would be perfectly capable of turning this plutonium into weapons-grade plutonium, and perhaps a nuclear weapon.’ Ms. Fleming added that Mr. ElBaradei has repeatedly said in the past that he believes North Korea has re-processed its plutonium into weapons-grade nuclear material. But she added that his comments this time are meant to underscore his belief that the issue is becoming increasingly urgent…” View Original Article
ISRAEL TO DISCUSS GROWING ROLE IN NATO, EU December 7, 2004 WorldNetDaily.com reports: “NATO's recent invitation to the Israel Defense Forces to take part for the first time in multinational military exercises and participate in anti-terror activities has prompted Israel's most prestigious foreign affairs conference to explore ways the Jewish state can become an enhanced NATO member and forge stronger ties to Europe. The four day Herzliya Conference, which begins Dec. 13 and is known to set the tone for future regional policies, will present ways Israel will participate in a new NATO alliance, including formalizing its membership status, Uzi Arad, former director of Mossad's intelligence division and chairman of the conference, told WorldNetDaily. ‘Israel will be offering its model for an enhanced strategic relationship with NATO. The conference will include a group to discuss enhancement, including elevating Israel's status from a dialogue member to a custom made format tailored to Israel's standards and positions,’ said Arad. Arad said Israel's formidable military force and its ‘good standing in our Western alliance should allow Israel greater participation in NATO. There are major commonalties of interest – defeating radical Islam and terrorism, democratization for the Middle East, and blunting nuclear proliferation, to name a few.’ Israel last month joined a NATO military summit in Brussels with the participation of the chiefs of staff of 26 NATO members and countries that have ties with the organization. Israel was also invited to take part in certain NATO military exercises and participate in anti-terror activities such as patrols in the eastern Mediterranean Sea…” View Original Article
OFFICIAL: IF U.S. BACKS PEACE SUMMIT, ISRAEL WILL TAKE PART December 6, 2004 Ha’aretz reports: “A senior Israeli official, responding Monday to media reports that Britain had won U.S. agreement to hold an international peace conference on the Middle East in London early next year, said that if Washington in fact supports such a summit, Israel would take part. The British Daily Telegraph newspaper, quoting unidentified senior diplomatic sources for its information, reported on Monday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair would discuss details with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a visit to the Middle East this month. It appears that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is unenthusiastic about such a conference, but that Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who would represent Israel, leans against rejecting the idea. According to the Israeli official, Israel has reservations with such conferences because they may herald an enforced agreement. No immediate comment was available from British officials on the report, but Blair has made a resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians a foreign policy priority and has linked it to fighting terrorism…” View Original Article
SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER BACKS 'VIRTUAL MEMBERSHIP' FOR ISRAEL December 6, 2004 The EU Observer reports: “Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos has said the EU should offer Israel a privileged partnership, offering all the benefits of EU membership, without participation in the institutions. Mr. Moratinos – formerly the EU’s representative in the Middle East – told an audience in Tel Aviv on Thursday that current links between the EU and Israel are not enough. ‘If Turkey is going to receive the green light to start negotiations for full integration into the EU, Israel should obtain the same benefits, with the single difference that we respect that Israel will not become a full member of the Union’, he said. Mr. Moratinos backed a partnership with Israel which is more than the Association Agreement which currently governs relations. The EU and Israel are currently locked in talks to negotiate a new agreement under the EU’s European Neighborhood Policy…”
US CONSULATE IN SAUDI ARABIA ATTACKED December 6, 2004 Voice of America News reports: “Saudi security forces say an attack at the heavily guarded U.S. consulate in Jeddah has left three gunmen and four Saudi guards dead. A number of people were wounded. Authorities say several gunmen stormed the consulate in the Red Sea port city Monday and seized a number of hostages. Witnesses heard gunfire and explosions, and a thick pall of smoke rose into the sky from the American compound. Officials say two gunmen were arrested before the attack was over. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. U.S. officials say two local staff members at the consulate were wounded, but all Americans were safe and accounted for. The attack on the American compound was the latest in a series of assaults in Saudi Arabia over the past two years targeting foreigners in the kingdom…” View Original Article
IRAQ SEEKS ARMS COOPERATION WITH PAKISTAN December 5, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iraq seeks defense and military cooperation with Pakistan. Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shalaan held talks with Pakistani leaders in late November in the first effort by a post-Saddam Hussein government to forge defense and military cooperation with Islamabad. On Nov. 23, Shalaan met President Pervez Musharraf and Defense Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal. Shalaan was said to have discussed proposals for defense cooperation between the two Muslim countries. Pakistani officials said Islamabad has offered to sell weapons and military platforms as well as provide training to the Iraqi military and security forces. Pakistan has been a leading military ally of Saudi Arabia, who has offered assistance to Baghdad. The officials said Islamabad briefed Shalaan and his delegation on a range of Pakistani platforms. They were said to include Al Khalid main battle tank and the Super Mashak air trainer…” View Original Article
IRAN SIGNS SATELLITE ACCORD WITH CHINA December 4, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iran has signed a satellite cooperation accord with China in what could accelerate Teheran's intermediate- and long-range missile programs. The two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding meant to improve aerospace and satellite cooperation. Under the MoU, China would exchange expertise in the area of satellites and aerospace technology and sciences. The official Iranian news agency, Irna, reported that the MoU was signed in Beijing on Nov. 30. The agency said the accord -- signed by Iranian Space Agency director Hassan Shafti and Chinese National Space Agency director Lae-on Soon -- was meant to consolidate bilateral cooperation in the field of aerospace technology and sciences. ‘Under the MoU, the two sides are to use aerospace technology for peaceful purposes, particularly telecommunication and research satellites,’ Irna said…” View Original Article
HAMAS COULD SOON SUSPEND ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAELZ December 4, 2004 Ha’aretz reports: “The militant Hamas organization could soon suspend attacks against Israel, a senior member of the group said Thursday after talks with PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza. Mahmoud a-Zahar said Hamas will enter negotiations with Fatah over halting attacks against Israel, probably next week. ‘If the Israelis stop their aggression against our people, I think through the negotiations... we can reach a final agreement,’ a-Zahar said. In a speech to journalists Thursday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would halt offensive military operations in Palestinian areas if calm prevails. Sharon said that Israel would not be part of a Palestinian cease-fire, but that it has a vested interest in calm. Israel reserves the right to hit any Qassam rocket squads or suicide bombers it spots, he added. He added that Israel will want to coordinate security arrangements for the planned evacuation of the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and for the transfer of evacuated territories with the Palestinians. Any gunfire during the evacuation would prompt Israel ‘to respond in an extremely harsh manner,’ he said…” View Original Article
EXILES: IRAN MAKING MISSILES THAT COULD HIT EUROPE December 4, 2004 Reuters reports: “Iran is working on long-range missiles capable of hitting European capitals, as well as nuclear and chemical warheads, an exile group said on Thursday. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which has in the past given accurate information on some of Iran's nuclear facilities, said Tehran was working on missiles with a range of 1,600 to 1,900 miles, capable of hitting cities such as Berlin. Iran denies any intention of making long-range ballistic missiles and says its existing medium-range missiles are purely for deterrence. The NCRI told reporters Iran was carrying out research, testing and making the Ghadr 101 and Ghadr 110 missiles, comparable to advanced Scud E missiles, at the Hemmat Missile Industries Complex. Ghadr means value or merit in Farsi and Shab-e Ghadr refers to the night the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The NCRI is a coalition of exiled opposition groups fiercely opposed to Iran's clerical rulers. The State Department lists the NCRI and its armed wing, the People's Mujahideen, as a terrorist organization. The exiles also said Tehran had in August tested a Shahab-4 missile with a range of 1,200 to 1,900 miles, depending on the weight of the warhead. Shahab means meteor in Farsi. Iran has acknowledged it can make large numbers of medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of hitting Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf, but has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations it is developing Shahab-4. ‘Militarily speaking, by obtaining long-range and medium-range missiles, the clerics are trying to put many regions of the world, including all of Europe, within their range,’ NCRI's Ali Safavi told reporters. The NCRI acknowledged that the missile programs did not contravene international law. It provided site maps and detailed explanations but had no blueprints of the work. Safavi also said Iran's Shahid Karimi Industrial Group was pursuing nuclear and chemical warheads, but he gave few details…”
UN DEEMS WMD LEADING THREAT December 4, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “The international community has deemed the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction a leading threat and urged the examination of a preemptive strike option. A 16-member panel concluded a study for the United Nations that warned that unidentified states and groups deemed terrorists could launch a WMD attack anywhere in the world. The panel said the UN Security Council or individual states must be prepared to eliminate WMD threats before they could be carried out. ‘The international community does have to be concerned about nightmare scenarios combining terrorists, weapons of mass destruction and irresponsible states, which may conceivably justify the use of force, not just reactively but preventatively,’ the panel said in a 95-page report. ‘The question is not whether such action can be taken: it can, by the Security Council as the international community's collective security voice, at any time it deems that there is a threat to international peace and security.’ The report, scheduled for release on Thursday, came amid an effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect suspected Iranian nuclear weapons sites. IAEA director-general Mohammed El Baradei told the New York Times on Thursday that Iran has refused to allow inspections of sites in northern and southern Iran…” View Original Article
EU HOPES TO PUSH MIDEAST PEACE AT MEDITERRANEAN TALKS December 3, 2004 EU Business reports: “The European Union hoped Monday to coax the Middle East peace process forward at EU-Mediterranean talks here that were due to witness a rare encounter between the Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers. The two-day ‘Euromed’ meeting in The Hague comes at a moment of hope for the peace process as the Palestinians prepare to elect a new leader to succeed the late Yasser Arafat. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, confirming that he was shortly due to meet his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath here at the request of the EU's Dutch presidency, said his government has ‘no preconditions’ for the poll. ‘We would like to do everything possible to give the Palestinians the chance to have their own elections,’ he said, promising free movement of voters for the January 9 election. ‘We believe that this election is very important for the stability of the Palestinian Authority,’ Shalom said, adding that coupled with January polls in Iraq, it would ‘add stability to the region’. EU officials led by Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot and foreign policy chief Javier Solana kicked off The Hague meeting with a bilateral contact with Shalom, before a scheduled meeting with the Arab ministers including Shaath. ‘We will try and use this Euromed meeting and all the bilaterals in the margins to discuss the window of opportunity that there is now in the peace process,’ an aide to Solana told AFP. ‘For the EU the priority is the presidential election and to ensure that everything is done so that it goes ahead smoothly,’ he said. Following Arafat's death this month, the United States and Europe are both enthusiastically supporting the election, for which the moderate new chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mahmud Abbas, is the frontrunner. Shaath said in a statement that he would use the gathering of European and Middle Eastern foreign ministers to ‘ask for help in the elections and to put pressure on Israel to lift the closures in our cities, villages and camps’…” View Original Article
MOFAZ: EGYPT TO DEPLOY 750 BORDER TROOPS ALONG GAZA FRONTIER December 3, 2004 Ha’aretz reports: “Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced Wednesday that Israel and Egypt have reached an agreement in principle on the deployment of 750 Egyptian border troops along the Gaza-Egypt frontier. A few weeks ago, Egypt proposed deploying the 750 armed troops on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Route in the Rafah area, to reinforce security and prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. At present, only policemen are deployed there in keeping with the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement. ‘We have reached an agreement that allows for the deployment of additional Egyptian forces on the Egyptian side of the border, despite the fact that the peace agreements don't allow this,’ Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said earlier Wednesday after talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in Jerusalem. The 1979 Camp David peace accord limits the Egyptian military presence along the border. But Mofaz, speaking after his talks with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Omar Suleiman, said that arrangements would be made to avoid changes to the treaty. Israel on Tuesday accepted Egypt's offer to beef up its forces on the border between Sinai and the Gaza Strip and to train Palestinian officers, according to government sources…” View Original Article December 3, 2004 The Times Online reports: “Earth must take precautions to avoid contamination from life forms that must now be presumed to exist on Mars, leading scientists gave warning yesterday. Potentially deadly microorganisms could be returned to Earth on a probe which is being planned to collect samples from the Martian surface. The warning comes after a detailed scientific analysis of data sent back by the roving vehicle Opportunity which landed on Mars on January 25. Jeffrey Kargel of the US Geological Survey said that protection of our own planet from alien forms of life requires the assumption that Martian life exists. ‘Before proceeding with sample returns or human missions to Mars, we must review measures for planetary biological protection.’ His warning appears in Science magazine in an article accompanying the first formal publication of the mass of data from Opportunity, which continues to operate on the Martian surface. The search for life on Mars, now more than a century old, is still not finally resolved. But the odds that life existed there and may still exist are shortening, according to planetary experts, Dr Kargel said. Nobody any longer expects Martian life forms to be anything like those on Earth. But there remains a possibility that bacteria or other microscopic organisms may survive in regions where there is still water. On Earth, almost every imaginable habitat, including deep underground, has specialized bacteria — called extremophiles — living and thriving. The risks are twofold: probes sent from Earth may contaminate Mars with terrestrial bacteria, wrecking future studies of Martian life; or, more important, bacteria brought back from Mars may contaminate the Earth with unpredictable effects. Similar precautions were taken at the time of the Apollo Moon landings. Astronauts returned to Earth were kept in quarantine after they landed for fear they might be infected with a lunar bug. None was…” View Original Article
ZAPPED HUMAN EGGS DIVIDE WITHOUT SPERM December 2, 2004 NewScientist.com reports: “A trick that persuades human eggs to divide as if they have been fertilized could provide a source of embryonic stem cells that sidesteps ethical objections to existing techniques. It could also be deployed to improve the success rate of IVF. ‘Embryos’ created by the procedure do not contain any paternal chromosomes – just two sets of chromosomes from the mother – and so cannot develop into babies. This should remove the ethical objections that some people have to harvesting from donated human embryos. There are high hopes that stem cells, which can develop into many different cell types, could be used to treat a range of diseases. The tricked eggs divide for four or five days until they reach 50 to 100 cells – the blastocyst stage. These blastocysts should in theory yield stem cells, but because they are parthenogenetic – produced from the egg only – they cannot be viewed as a potential human life, says Karl Swann of the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, UK. ‘This could eliminate one of the main sources of ethical controversy in this research,’ says Bob Lanza, head of research at the cloning company Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts. But Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, a London-based pro-life lobby group greeted the new procedure with caution. ‘I’d be happier if it was beyond all reasonable doubt that it could not become a human life.’…” View Original Article
IRAQI FORCES TAKE OVER NAJAF December 2, 2004 The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iraqi security forces have taken over the Shi'ite city of Najaf. Iraqi police and security forces formally assumed responsibility for Najaf, the city torn by a Shi'ite insurgency in August 2004. The U.S. 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit transferred control of Najaf to Iraqi police and security units on Tuesday. The transfer came more than three months after the end of combat operations in Najaf. Since Aug. 28, officials said no major incidents took place in Najaf, which had been the headquarters of the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army. The Marines have steadily reduced their presence in Najaf over the last two months, officials said. They said Iraqi security forces have been conducting limited security operation with little to no U.S. Marine oversight…” View Original Article |
Some News Snippets Driven by JVI Prophecy News - Jack Van Impe Ministries
