To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [bprlist] On Fraud in Science
From: tracy
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 01:06:26 -0500
I have put some thought into the pharmaceutical business and its
research.
I have also read a lot of different sources when it comes to healing and
nutrition. I have notice some problems with the health care field as it
is right now. The message that I just read brought some things to my
attention.
It seems to me that the obvious reason to use fraud in science would be
to make the marketing people happy so that what ever it is that they
want to sell can be sold. The studies can be given to the fear factory
(sales force) and profits can role.
Now if I am working for a pharmaceutical company and they want a drug
that "helps in the fight" against a disease (no company is looking for a
cure) I know that I need to get it passed the FDA. So if someone knows
the parameters of his or her science they can run experiments set up to
fail to convince the FDA that what they have is a better alternative.
They also use the "placebo effect" as a way to prove that what they sell
really has no side effect. All occurrences are the same as a "sugar
pill". Hmmmm, this says that the side effects for a lot of people are
in their imagination. But what is not said is that a LARGE number of
people are reactive hypoglycemic. Their bodies react negatively to
sugar. This skews the truth and allows drugs to be put on the market
that normally would not be if they tested the drug against a truly
neutral substance. They would see that most of the side effects are not
placebo.
So a person goes to there doctor for the anual check up. After the
system diagnostics readings are done the doctor say to the patient that
he/she has high blood pressure. The doctor never inquires about the
patients diet because of time restraints place by the insurance
company, and follow protocal and prescribes a drug to lower the
bloodpressure. Now over 60% of americans have a potassium deficiency.
Potassium is a mineral that the body uses to help regulate salt.
Potassium is also needed to regulate the blood pressure. Now the
deficiency goes untreated and 5 months later the patent is complaining
about apprehension or anxiety. The doctor again follows protocal and
gives Prozac. This would be another error because not only did they
miss the underlying cause of the bloodpressure but a lot of drugs cause
anxiety. I also would gess that if the body is trying to regulate the
bloodpressure and now there is something else there trying to mess with
it. The body knows were the blood pressure sould be but the something
has changed that. Now it is messing with the rest of the endocrine
system. Confuseing the brain resulting in a feeling of anxiousness.
Not to mention that a potassium deficiency will also create anxiety.
There is too much money involved. If you change a diet there would
actually be less money spent in that household. Vegitables are less
expensive than hotdogs and doritos. On the other hand bloodpressure
medicine and Prozac would cost over $ 300.00 per month. Now grag your
calculators and start adding up potential profits. 60% of americans x
$300.00 x 12 months = coruption. This doesnt include the rest of the
mineral deffiecencies that plague America. I will right more later on
this subject I don't want this message to become a book.
I am recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome. I was told that there is
nothing that can be done about this. I also did not believe them. I
believe that GOD created us so that we could be cured without science.
There is a plant or food or exercise for anything that is created by
the Satan. Another important issue is belief. The true "placebo
effect" taking place is the reaction we have to warnings given by
others. Our mind does exactly what we believe. If you believe you are
going to have this problem you will have it. Ever notice that you can
never avoid your fears. We seem to set ourselves up and run into what
we are trying to avoid? That is why it is so important to have self
control.
Look at your heart for the word of GOD. The word of man is skewed with
corruption and self interest. A lot of science is based on information
that we have inherited from others . If it is wrong all things that
branched from it are wrong. Some would say that no man could
orchestrate something like that, ...... but over centuries Satan could.
My prayers for a world of truth
Tracy
> FROM THE SCIENCEWEEK ARCHIVE:
> ON FRAUD IN SCIENCE
> There are two prevalent myths concerning scientific fraud: The
> first myth states that since most scientific experiments are
> replicated by other laboratories, science is self-correcting
> because the discovery of fraud involving the fabrication of data
> is inevitable. The second myth is that scientific papers
> involving fabrication of data are extremely rare, with only a few
> fraudulent papers published in any one year. Concerning the first
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976031186/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] ReligionToday News Summary for Monday, December 4, 2000
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 09:17:34 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
by the Editors of ReligionToday
December 4, 2000
[..edited..]
Hormones may be keeping husbands away from church, a researcher
suspects. Elevated testosterone levels that make men more likely to engage in
risky behavior may also make them risk going to hell by shunning religion,
says sociologist Rodney Stark of the University of Washington. He presented
his theory to a somewhat skeptical audience at the annual convention of the
Religion Research Association Oct. 21, according to Associated Baptist Press
(see link #5 below).
..."Being irreligious is risky," Stark said. That may be why churches always
have been filled with more women than men, not only in the United States but
in every country Stark has studied, he said.
...A similar risk-taking phenomenon occurs in the field of criminology, Stark
said, according to ABP. More men than women commit violent crimes, and
some criminologists think that testosterone is linked to their short-sighted risk-
taking. More women avoid risks, including taking risks on the hereafter, he
said.
...The gap between male and female attendance at religious services closes in
Judaism, which places less emphasis on the afterlife than does Christianity,
and in Christian denominations that don't preach much about heaven and hell,
Stark said.
-----------
RELATED LINKS:
5: http://www.abpnews.com/abpnews/ 6: http://www.projo.com/
-----------
News from ReligionToday is Copyrighted by Crosswalk.com.
Content may be reproduced provided proper credit is
given to religiontoday.crosswalk.com. Please go to
http://www.crosswalk.com/info/copyright to be sure you
meet all legal requirements.
____________________SUBSCRIPTION INFO_______________________
* You subscribed to News Summary as:
< owner-bpr@philologos.org >
* To unsubscribe from this newsletter, send an email to:
< leave-newssummary-510654N@lists.crosswalk.com >
* To change your address: unsubscribe your old address
and then subscribe your new address.
* Copyright (c) 2000 Crosswalk.com, Inc. and its Content
Providers. All rights reserved.
* For a complete list of free email newsletters from
Crosswalk.com, go to < http://www.crosswalk.com/lists >
* To subscribe to this newsletter, send an email to:
< newssummary-join@lists.crosswalk.com >.
____________________________________________________________
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975940097/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) DEC/4/00 [6] 37 Jews arrested in Gaza
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:22:50 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: 4 Dec 2000 08:28:56 -0000
From: BreakingNews-Israel <YeshBB@netvision.net.il>
Subject: DEC/4/00 [6] 37 Jews arrested in Gaza
BreakingNews-Israel
1. Police arrest 37 Jewish residents of Gaza=09
2. IDF opens the Kalkilya area in Samaria=09
3. More shooting attacks in Hebron=09
4. Shots fired in Nitzanei Oz=09
1. Police arrest 37 Jewish residents of Gaza
(BNI-DEC.4) Israel Police on Monday made the decision to arrest 37 Gazan
Jewish residents who were participating in demonstrations on the road from
Khan Yunis to the Kfar Darom area. The demonstrators were demanding the
government reverse its decision to reopen the road from the PLO Authority
autonomous area which was closed following last month=92s bombing attack
against a schoolbus.
The road was opened to Arab vehicles on Monday as planned and PA Chairman
Yassir Arafat was seen traveling the road from Khan Yunis to his Gaza
office.
In a related matter, the Prime Minister=92s Office announced on Monday that
in another confidence-building step, 15,000 Arab laborers, residents of PA
autonomous areas, would be permitted into =93Israel proper=94 in the coming
days to resume working in the construction and agriculture industries.
++++
2. IDF opens the Kalkilya area in Samaria
(BNI-DEC.4) The IDF has announced that following an evaluation of the
security situation in the area; the closure placed on the PLO Authority
autonomous city of Kalkilya would be lifted. Government officials
indicated the move was another good will gesture designed to coincide with
the Moslem holy month of Ramadan.
The road was opened to Arab vehicles on Monday as planned and PA Chairman
Yassir Arafat was seen traveling the road from Khan Yunis to his Gaza
office.
In a related matter, the Prime Minister=92s Office announced on Monday that
in another confidence-building step, 15,000 Arab laborers, residents of PA
autonomous areas, would be permitted into =93Israel proper=94 in the coming
days to resume working in the construction and agriculture industries.
++++
3. More shooting attacks in Hebron
(BNI-DEC.4) IDF forces stationed in Hebron were once again attacked by
gunfire on Monday afternoon. There were no reports of casualties.
++++
4. Shots fired in Nitzanei Oz
(BNI-DEC.4) Shot were fired from the PLO Authority autonomous city of Tul
Karem on Monday afternoon. The gunfire entered Moshav Nitzanei Oz, an
Israeli community inside the =93Green Line=94. There have been several such
attacks against the moshav in past weeks. There were no injuries.
++++
To subscribe to the BreakingNews-Israel list, send a blank email message
to
44828-subscribe@listbot.com
++++
______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to 44828-unsubscribe@listbot.com
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975951396/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Heavy Gunbattles Rage in Bethlehem
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:24:39 -0500
Heavy Gunbattles Rage in Bethlehem
By DINA KRAFT
.c The Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) - Heavy Israeli-Palestinian gunbattles raged early Monday
near a holy shrine in biblical Bethlehem. In the Gaza Strip, Yasser Arafat
carried a weapon in public for the first time since 1994 and complained
that Israel violated an agreement to ``cool down the situation.''
The Israeli army said Palestinian gunmen attacked the Bethlehem shrine,
revered by Jews as Rachel's Tomb, the burial site of the biblical
matriarch, from three sides and apparently tried to take it over.
Palestinians said the fighting broke out after soldiers and Jewish
settlers attacked Muslim worshippers.
The confrontation lasted hours and at one point, Israeli helicopters
aiming at Palestinian gunmen fired two rockets at the Aida refugee camp
near Bethlehem in the West Bank, the army said.
Fourteen Palestinians were injured in Bethlehem area fighting Sunday and
early Monday, including two who were in serious condition with gunshot
wounds, Palestinian hospitals said.
The shooting also caused damage in several Bethlehem neighborhoods. Iman
Al Azza, 35, surveyed the blackened rooms of his home's second floor. The
rooms caught fire during the spray of Israeli helicopter gunfire. Al
Azza's home is near an eight-story building overlooking Rachel's Tomb that
is often used by Palestinian gunmen.
Elsewhere, residents displayed bedsheets riddled with bullet holes and
showed visitors the holes in their rooftops.
Arafat said the Israeli shelling ``was a shock because we had agreed to
cool down the situation.'' For the first time since his return from exile
in 1994, Arafat displayed a weapon in public. As he reviewed an honor
guard outside his Gaza City office, the Palestinian leader carried a
German-made machine pistol.
Arafat had just returned from a visit to Qatar and explained that he was
holding the weapon because Jewish settlers blocked Gaza's main north-south
thoroughfare, the road he had to travel in order to reach Gaza City.
``The most important thing is that right now they were closing Salah Edin
Road and that is why I am carrying this,'' he told reporters.
It appeared that Arafat was carrying the weapon in a symbolic gesture. He
gave no indication that he would use it.
Israel army radio said settlers tried to throw stones at Arafat's convoy.
The army would say only that it removed settlers from the roadside. More
than two dozen settlers were detained, the radio said.
Tensions had risen in the Bethlehem area late Sunday when, according to
the army, residents of the village of Hussan near Bethlehem threw
firebombs at Israeli motorists driving along a nearby bypass road. An
Israeli woman was slightly injured.
Later, Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers entered Hussan and opened fire
on Palestinians who were on their way to the Hussan mosque for evening
prayers, Palestinian witnesses said. The army said it shot and wounded a
Palestinian who had tried to seize a soldier's weapon, but denied
attacking worshippers.
Heavy fighting then erupted near Rachel's Tomb. An army spokesman, Maj.
Yarden Vatikay, said it was one of the most intense gun battles in more
than nine weeks of fighting.The sustained unrest has claimed nearly 300
lives, most of them Palestinian.
``We assume that it was an attempt to take it (Rachel's Tomb). We view
this as a very serious incident as this is a holy place for the Jews,''
Vatikay said.
Also Monday, an Israeli settlement watchdog group said Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak has done nothing to restrict the growth of Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Peace Now that under his
rule, the pace of construction was faster than under his hard-line
predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Peace Now said Barak's plan for creating large settlement blocs under
Israeli sovereignty and dismantling smaller communities as part of a peace
agreement with the Palestinians was unworkable.
The group called for an immediate settlement freeze and the dismantling of
all the settlements in the framework of a final peace treaty.
In Gaza, the army opened a new road to the isolated Jewish settlement of
Netzarim. The army said it hoped to increase security for settlers because
the previous access road had been a flash point for shootings and roadside
bombs.
Palestinian officials said Israel violated interim peace agreements by
paving the road on Palestinian-controlled land, and not seeking permission
from the Palestinian Authority.
Barak, meanwhile, is hinging his hopes for re-election on a bid to clinch
a peace deal - partial or comprehensive - with the Palestinians.
Barak faces the possible return of Netanyahu to the political arena. It
was still unclear if Netanyahu, who was scheduled to return to Israel from
abroad Monday, planned to challenge the prime minister. Opinion polls have
Barak trailing far behind Netanyahu, the man he defeated in a landslide
victory last year.
Barak has suggested quickly negotiating a phased peace plan that would
recognize a Palestinian state but put off the most sensitive issues, such
as control of Jerusalem.
However, the Palestinians have demanded a comprehensive agreement that
creates a Palestinian state in all, or virtually all, of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip - areas Israel captured during the 1967 Mideast War.
AP-NY-12-04-00 1120EST
http://www.ap.org/
via: Third_Watch@egroups.com
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975951398/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Churches work to reclaim Advent
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 12:51:50 EST
Churches work to reclaim Advent
Spiritual aids counter commercial excesses
http://www.baltimoresun.com/content/news/story?section=news-maryland-sun&pagename=story&storyid=1150520205103
By John Rivera
Sun Staff
Originally published Dec 3 2000
For many, Christmas gets crowded out of the holiday season's flurry of
parties, festive decorating and trips to the shopping mall that can make
December one of the busiest and most stressful months of the year.
That's why a growing number of churches are offering contemplative timeouts
for their members in an attempt to inject a little more spirituality into the
Christmas season.
As Christians begin the four-week celebration of Advent today, churches are
offering evening prayer and retreat days for silent meditation. They are
encouraging members to walk a labyrinth, a spiritual stroll through a
contemplative maze. They are handing out booklets to help people to pray at
home.
It's all for the purpose of stopping the madness.
"People are looking for ways to quiet down. There's so much noise in our
lives," said Katharine W. LeVeque, a clinical social worker who instructed a
group in guided imagery meditation techniques at a workshop yesterday at the
Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in North Baltimore.
"It's all about learning to get yourself interiorly ready for what Christmas
is really about," LeVeque said. "And when you can do that, and you have the
tools and skills to do that, it works out to a much happier time in the
holiday."
There was a time when it was easier to get people to church for programs or
services during Advent, which includes the four Sundays before Christmas. No
longer, say many church professionals.
"The commercialization of Christmas, it just seems to explode when the economy
is good. There seems to be a proliferation of other options at Christmastime,"
said the Rev. C. Neil Strait, co-author of "Advent Moments: Preparing Your
Heart for the Coming King."
"Pastors tell me December used to be the month we looked forward to, there was
an opportunity for so many things, Christmas parties and the like," said
Strait, who supervises pastors for the Church of the Nazarene in Michigan.
"Now pastors almost dread the month of December because people are in so many
different places."
That forces churches to be more creative.
"You really find yourself in a competitive position. So you want something
that, in an odd kind of yin-yang way, competes with the hype, but is
contemplative," said Gloria Carpeneto, a pastoral associate at St. Anthony of
Padua/Most Precious Blood Roman Catholic Churches in Northeast Baltimore.
"It's not just going to church and saying your prayers," Carpeneto said.
That's why the Rev. J. Leland Mebust of Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Towson is one of probably dozens of area pastors who will hold a workshop
today after services to help families make Advent wreaths.
An Advent wreath is a circle of greens with four candles, one for each week of
the season, that many Christian families keep in their homes.
"As people come to each Sunday of the four Sundays in Advent, they light the
candle and sing an Advent song, maybe read a passage of Scripture and have a
family devotional around the supper table," Mebust said.
"The idea of the wreath is it's sort of a prayerful exercise that reminds us
there are some things we can't do that only God can ... and it helps to focus
on the one who's at the center of the season," he said.
At Ark and Dove Presbyterian Church in Odenton, there is an appeal to the head
as well as the heart. Church member Pepper Powers will teach a class next
Sunday on scientific research into the origin of the Star of Bethlehem.
"This gets to the roots of what Christmas is really all about," said Powers,
an engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. "I like to get people
thinking a little more deeply about where their spirituality comes from."
Three Baltimore Catholic parishes are offering a "directed retreat," a formal
religious exercise under the guidance of a spiritual director that's usually
held at a retreat house in the country. But this one can be done at home.
The members of St. Anthony of Padua/Most Precious Blood, St. Ignatius in Mount
Vernon and St. Alphonsus Rodriguez in Woodstock can take home a book
containing daily Bible readings.
They will meditate on a reading each day, pray over it and then share what
they observed or felt in their prayer with a trained spiritual director --
either in person, by phone or by e-mail.
St. Anthony's is one of several churches that is offering meditative walks
around a labyrinth. The labyrinth will be made available from 11 a.m. to 2
p.m. today in the school hall, 4414 Frankford Ave.
"We have it the first Sunday in Advent as a way to say, walk into this quiet
winter season of patient hope, slow down," said Carpeneto. "It's the first
week in Advent: Make the first thing you do in preparation for Christmas be an
act of contemplation."
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975970714/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] House for sale but ghost must stay
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 12:53:19 EST
House for sale but ghost must stay
http://theadvertiser.com.au/common/story_page/0,4511,1481003%255E912,00.html
By CHRISTOPH DRIESSEN in London
04dec00
A HANDSOME farmhouse in the South Wales town of Barry is for sale - but the
contract requires the buyer to leave the "resident ghost" in peace.
Exorcism of any kind is strictly forbidden, since owners Ray and Maureen
Bronson have become rather fond of their "resident spirit".
"We want to move to a bigger house but we both feel that `Tom' should stay
here where he belongs," Mr Bronson said, although he admits having once been
so frightened of Tom that he slept in the car.
After a chat, man-to-ghost with a vicar as an intermediary, both sides felt a
lot better and began to get along fine.
Apparition or delusion? Statistics show that more young people in Britain
believe in the supernatural than they do in the Christian God.
One survey found that nearly one in every two Britons believes that ghosts are
genuine.
An industry of "ghostbusters" and other self-appointed experts in disposing of
troublesome astral beings has sprung up to meet the demand.
Paranormal considerations play an increasingly important role in the buying
and selling of property.
Last year a couple sued a firm of estate agents, claiming they had been sold a
haunted house. The court rejected the claim.
Meanwhile, eye specialist Trevor Kirkham went to court after a farm he bought
in Lancashire failed to live up to its reputation of being haunted. He said
the apparition of a headless friar had been promised. The court awarded him
about $217,000 in damages.
The reputedly most haunted house in Britain as listed by the Guinness Book of
Records, Littledean Hall in the Forest of Dean, was recently offered for sale
for more than $1 million.
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/975970624/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Faith Goes Online
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 12:55:25 EST
Faith Goes Online
The world's major and minor religions
have found congregations on the Web
http://www.nydailynews.com/2000-12-03/New_York_Now/Technology/a-90715.asp
By ALISSA MACMILLAN
he search for religious wisdom takes people to foreign lands, ancient
cathedrals and exotic temples and mosques. But increasingly, that search is
moving in another direction altogether: online. And during the holiday season,
this often introspective time of year, the Web is a place where soul searchers
are finding thriving spiritual communities.
"It's like the Pentecost miracle, when people from different places who spoke
different languages gathered one day in Jerusalem and communicated," says
Charles P. Henderson, the Christianity guide at About.com and a pastor on the
Web. "It's happening everyday online."
About.com/religion is an active force in the online community. It uses human
guides to help visitors navigate the Web. Henderson says he is stunned by the
vitality online. He helps lead people to specific religious sites, acting as a
tour guide and a sounding board.
THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE
From sites that survey the world's religions to places for specific sects, you
can find what you're seeking online.
Steve Waldman launched www.belief.net, "The source for spirituality, religion
and morality," about 11 months ago, and it's a religious site like few others.
A news magazine refugee, Waldman noticed "a strong thirst for inspiration and
information that wasn't close to being met." He founded Belief.net to
accommodate the changing needs in what he calls a "new spiritual landscape."
At a time when people are no longer closed off to other religions but
interested in learning more, the Web is an ideal medium. Belief.net doesn't
adhere to a particular church or ideology (in fact Waldman is himself part of
an interfaith marriage), but is instead trying to expose visitors to an entire
range of religions.
"We're not a religion, we are here to help you get what you need, and that's a
new approach to the subject matter," he says. The site is filled with content,
including dozens of features on the history and background of the major
religions, a religious dictionary and popular (and addictive) self-identity
quizzes. It offers prayer circles and a new, moving "gratitude circle" where
people express thanks.
The holidays are an especially exciting time for Belief.net, as they currently
offer a Ramadan feature, and more is on the way.
OUTPOSTS FOR THE FAITHFUL
Not everyone goes to a site like Belief.net or About.com looking to be
educated about world religions. As Waldman explains, "Catholics treat it as if
it was a Catholic site. They're reading Catholic articles, going to Catholic
prayer circles, and it's the same for every other faith."
For those seeking to delve deeper into their own religion, Belief.net is just
the beginning of what the Web has to offer. Organizations look online to
connect with people of similar faiths across the world.
"The Christian Church has always prided itself on being a global network,"
says Henderson, "and the Internet has allowed that to be realized in a way
that was never possible before."
Henderson's First Church of Cyberspace, at www.gobweb.org, was the first to
hold services for all Christians online, and it is still going strong after
its creation five years ago. Though at the vanguard of cyber-faith
practitioners, Henderson describes himself as a traditionalist, having spent
25 years as pastor of a Presbyterian church.
Catholic Web surfers can check out www.catholic.org, a comprehensive site that
offers news links and reports from the Vatican. Christianlinks.com is another
outpost for Christians of many denominations, with links for everyone from
Mormons to Seventh-Day Adventists. You can take a moment during the day for
prayer at www.sacredspace.ie, or look at popular culture from a spiritual
angle on a Christian site called www.hollywoodjesus.com. And younger
generations looking for a friendly, hipper place to find God can check out
www.wuzupgod.com, a visual, conversational, site.
The Jewish community also has a strong Web presence, as sites work toward
bringing the faithful together. Binyamin L. Jolkovsky started
www.jewishworldreview.com - a traditional Jewish site based in Borough Park,
Brooklyn - three years ago. The experience has shown him the Web's potential
for transforming religious communities.
"We've proven there can be a sense of unity in this country among people of
different faiths," says Jolkovsky. With everything from information on how to
get Torah instruction to secular lifestyle columns from journalism's
heavyweights, Jewishworldreview.com is currently one of the most heavily
trafficked Jewish sites, while 30%-40% of those who visit are not Jewish. The
site has created a community through dialogue, and Jolkovsky is especially
pleased with how the Internet allows people to come in contact with minority
groups they are unfamiliar with.
"People speak about creating a community [online]. There really is a community
here, and we're more than happy to provide people with it," says Jolkovsky.
The other powerhouse site for the Jewish community is
www.virtualjerusalem.com, a colorful, dense, international place with
articles, links, chats and more.
Ramadan began last weekend, and for people curious to know more about Muslim
beliefs, there's www.islamonline.net, which takes a news-driven angle, with
world headlines. It also features everything from religious studies from the
Koran to questions about being Muslim. The "My Journey to Islam" feature has
essays about experiences of the faithful.
Another modern-looking site with a "Ramadan Center," news, updates, community
information and even a portal into the Muslim world online is
www.islamicity.org.
For Hindus and those interested in learning more about Hindu beliefs and
practices, www.hindunet.org is an outpost hoping to keep people informed.
There are features for kids and women, a daily discussion and a calendar of
events.
Buddhists can find a network at www.buddhanet.net. It's based in Australia,
but has loads of information on Buddhist practices and a list of suggested Web
links, leading Buddhists and the curious to a bounty of informational sites.
THE FUTURE OF THE COMMUNITY
As for the future of religion online, Waldman predicts that it will not be a
glamourous one, but rather practical. "We're watching existing houses of
worship and movements figure out how to use the Web to strengthen their own
community of faith and energize their congregation," says Waldman. "Right now,
most sites are pretty bad, set up by the 12-year-old in the congregation who's
a computer whiz."
But in the future, he believes, it will be about using the Web to their
advantage - creating an e-mail newsletter, organizing the potluck dinner to
help the homeless, or extending the discussion of the Wednesday night Bible
group.
Henderson, on the other hand, predicts, "We've just seen the tip of the
iceberg in terms of the power of the Internet as a tool for community."
Either way, it's good news for all religions.
Original Publication Date: 12/3/00
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/975970666/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Providence won't pay for PRAYER
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 12:56:37 EST
Providence won't pay for PRAYER
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/338/metro/Providence_won_t_pay_for_PRAYER+.shtml
By Richard Higgins, Globe Staff, 12/3/2000
Bucking charges that it is unconstitutional, a Providence police officer is
going ahead with a ''faith-based'' effort to healing the strained ties between
police and civilians in Rhode Island's capital.
But he will have to do it without sponsorship or money from the city. Mayor
Vincent A. Cianci Jr. said he backs the idea, but ''the city just can't pay
for it.''
The outreach program, dubbed PRAYER, was kicked off Thursday with a ''Night of
Prayer and Healing'' at a Catholic hall in Providence. About 50 police
officers and chaplains, ministers and local residents attended, including
Police Commissioner John Partington.
Gregory W. Bolden, a 14-year police veteran, announced the program Monday and
initially said he would be ''assigned'' to work full time on it.
Bolden said he hopes PRAYER will ease strains caused in part by the mistaken
police killing of an off-duty black police officer in January and an ongoing
police corruption scandal.
But the notion of the Police Department sponsoring religious activities set
off a sharp protest last week from civil libertarians, who said it clearly
crossed the line dividing church and state.
''It's simply inappropriate for the Police Department to be involved in
bringing people together based on their religious views, and seeking solutions
to problems through religious means,'' said Steven Brown, executive director
of the Rhode Island office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
After reviewing the criticisms and the legal issues, city officials said late
last week that the program would continue, but would involve no taxpayer money
or official police time.
''We're walking down this path very carefully and making sure no religious
rights are violated,'' said Partington, the commissioner. However, he said he
thought the idea was a good one.
''I support anything that would bring the police and the city closer together,
but after reviewing this with the city solicter, we just want to make sure
that this program does not use any city money.''
Bolden, a supply officer, said PRAYER is a nondenominational, faith-based
approach to ''get beyond the finger-pointing, name calling and accusations
that dominate most police-community forums.''
It will include community forums - the first one is scheduled for January -
and counseling for police officers. Bolden said it would use ''values obtained
by faith'' as a way to draw community groups and the police into a more
positive relationship.
The official name of the program is Police Responsiveness - And Yours -
Encourages Rebuilding, and Bolden acknowledges the acronym may be misleading.
''There won't be praying on the steps of City Hall or prayer groups or
anything,'' according to Bolden, who said the idea for the program came to him
amid public anger over the shooting, by two white police officers, of an
off-duty black police officer, Cornel Young. Working with Bolden on it is
another Providence officer, Rhonda Araujo.
''We're not going out to make disciples,'' said another supporter, the Rev.
Joshua Jenkins, pastor of the Powerhouse Church of God in Christ. ''But we
need to be peacemakers.''
Religious symbols and influences were evident at the program's kickoff service
at the Bishop McVinney Auditorium on Franklin Street. It included an opening
prayer by Bolden, two church choirs, a short homily by a local minister and a
closing prayer by two police chaplains ''for the safety of police officers and
their families.''
The program was met with skepticism by some community leaders.
''I'm glad they recognize there are problems in the department,'' said John
Prince, of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, a Providence group that
monitors allegations of police wrongdoing. But Bolden's effort won't work, he
said, ''because some officers don't believe in prayer,''
He said that if the police wanted to build public trust, they should more
thoroughly investigate the behavior of officers.
Brown, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he remains concerned by the
program even though he supports the goal of improving police-community
relations, and even though officials have now said that public funds will not
be used.
Bolden's argument that the program is nondenominational and doesn't promote
any one religion is not the point, Brown said. ''The First Amendment prohibits
from promoting any religious activity, however nondenominational,'' he said.
Using tax funds to promote a prayer service or paying police officers to spend
their time on religious-based activities would be ''blatantly
unconstitutional.''
Even if PRAYER steers clear of these pitfalls, other aspects of the program
disturb him, Brown said.
''It suggests that people who share certain spiritual values are to be helped
and to enjoy better community-police relations,'' he said. ''People of no
faith deserve those benefits also.''
Bolden said the criticism of the program has obscured the contribution it
could make in referring police officers to counseling. He and Arauja have been
assembling a network of volunteer counselors and clergy from whom officers
under stress can seek help.
''PRAYER is simply a reliance on the same religious values that helped to
shape this nation,'' Bolden said yesterday. ''When Roger Williams founded this
very city, for example, he named it in gratitude for God's `providence' to him
and those who settled here.''
This story ran on page B09 of the Boston Globe on 12/3/2000.
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/975970752/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] C of E says cloning is 'morally acceptable'
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 12:59:19 EST
Sunday 3 December 2000
C of E says cloning is 'morally acceptable'
By Lorraine Fraser and Jonathan Petre
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=r9b2a9hX&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/12/3/nclon03.html
THE Church of England has entered the controversy over embryo research by
suggesting that cloning human embryos is no more unnatural than a heart
transplant.
A briefing paper for the Church's Board for Social Responsibility dismisses
fears that allowing scientists to create embryos as part of research into new
treatments for disease would be the "slippery slope" towards cloning human
beings.
It argues that such research "may be thought to be as morally acceptable" as
experiments on embryos to discover treatments for infertility, which are
already allowed in the UK.
While not official Church policy the paper, written by Canon Dr John
Polkinghorne, chairman of the Board's Science and Medical Technology Committee
and a leading scientist and theologian, will be highly influential.
Canon Polkinghorne - who is also a member of the Human Genetics Commission -
is a leading Church adviser and member of the General Synod. In addition, the
Board, chaired by the Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend Richard Harries,
will have approved the submission before its release.
This is the first time the Church has stepped so explicitly into the
controversy over the morals of so-called stem-cell research, on which MPs are
due to vote. However, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales said
they were "greatly concerned" by the implications of cloning human embryos.
They urged Catholics to write to their MPs in advance of the free vote on new
regulations in Parliament. The Catholic bishops said in a statement: "We
believe that research on cloned human embryos is both immoral and unnecessary.
It is immoral because it involves the deliberate creation of new human lives
for the sole purpose of extracting stem cells for research."
The bishops said: "It strips an individual human life, in its earliest form,
of all dignity, reducing it to no more than a commodity, a supply of
disposable organic matter. It is also unnecessary because other avenues of
stem-cell research exist which may offer the same potential benefits without
the ethical difficulties."
The bishops said that they recognised the laudable motives of research to cure
disease, but what was technically possible "is not for that reason alone
morally acceptable".
Scientists believe stem cells, embryonic cells with the capability of becoming
a range of cell types, could be the key to new treatments for diseases such as
Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and diabetes, and might even be used to grow organs
for transplants.
The government's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Liam Donaldson, has recommended
that the research be allowed to go ahead under the control of the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The law in the UK already allows
research on human embryos up to 14 days old for fertility treatments. The
government intends to lay regulations which will allow researchers to use
embryos left over from fertility treatment in stem-cell experiments.
More controversially the regulations would also allow "therapeutic cloning",
the creation of embryos with a genetic make-up identical to a living adult.
This would be done by the same methods which produced Dolly the sheep, and
could, in theory, produce a cloned human being. The nucleus of a human egg
would be removed and replaced with a nucleus of a cell from an adult.
Scientists argue therapeutic cloning is an essential part of the search for
new treatments as individuals who are ill will best be helped by new organs
which identically match their own. They would "harvest" stem cells from the
embryos which would not be allowed to develop further.
But opponents, including the Roman Catholic Church, protest that therapeutic
cloning will inevitably lead to cloned human beings because the basic
scientific method, known as Cell Nuclear Replacement, is exactly the same.
They also point to evidence that adult human beings have stem cells in the
body which can be coaxed into different cell types and argue that the embryo
research is not needed. In his paper Canon Polkinghorne says the use of this
method to create a child - which the government has said it will ban - would
be "ethically" unacceptable'.
Canon Polkinghorne says that therapeutic cloning "can be readily fenced off
from reproductive cloning" by prohibiting attempts to implant embryos into a
woman where they could, theoretically, develop into a child. Canon
Polkinghorne argues against the "absolute" view of the Roman Catholic Church
that an embryo is a full human being from the point of conception and thus any
intervention other than for its own good is wrong.
Canon Polkinghorne says that while this view must be given "respectful
attention, it is fair to say that it does not wholly correspond to actual
practice. No one seems to suggest holding a funeral service for an embryo that
failed to implant and was lost."
Canon Polkinghorne admits that research in human genetics raises anxieties
about "playing God" but he says: "A heart transplant is as radically unnatural
a procedure as CNR." He says that Man's power to manipulate his world could be
seen as "God-given". Canon Polkinghorne says: "The point then is to use those
powers aright and in accordance with the divine will."
Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford, and an active supporter of
regulated stem-cell research last night welcomed the paper's "positive
approach". He said: "Opponents of embryo research cannot say they have a
monopoly on the religious arguments. Many of us feel that it would be morally
wrong not to allow embryo research to find new treatments for terrible
diseases."
Tony Blair's plans to allow cloning are under threat from Brussels which
regards the practice as "unethical". A key European Commission committee ruled
that the research is "premature". The European Group on Ethics in Science and
New Technologies, which reports directly to Commission President Romano Prodi,
has also warned that therapeutic cloning may breach the European Union's new
Charter on Fundamental Rights.
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975970737/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Sea gives up top Romans' leisure liner
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 13:01:30 EST
December 3 2000 BRITAIN
Sea gives up top Romans' leisure liner
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/12/03/stinwenws01011.html
Jonathan Leake and Rossella Lorenzi
ARCHEOLOGISTS are calling it the Roman Titanic. A luxury cruise ship for Roman
noblemen, which sank more than 2,000 years ago during a storm, has emerged
from the shifting sands of a Sicilian bay.
The vessel - up to 150ft long and equipped with ancient luxuries including
candelabras, a hot tub and religious shrine - is thought to have ferried the
Roman super-rich along the Mediterranean coast to various ports en route.
The cargo of upper-class Romans and their accoutrements was, however, wrecked
in the bay of Camarina, near Ragusa, Sicily - to be found in August last year
by Giuseppe Russo, a swimming instructor who was hunting for octopus shortly
after a huge storm.
"I was diving along the sea bed when I saw the engraved face of a black
panther," said Russo. "I pulled it out and discovered that it was part of an
oil lamp. I dug around, and a treasure of bronze items appeared from the sand,
as if by magic."
Among his finds was a range of aristocratic artefacts, including a statuette,
bronze sculptures and works of art, plus richly decorated jugs.
Russo put the find into the sack meant for his captured octopus and went
straight to the local archeology department -- which realised he had made what
could be one of the most significant finds in decades.
The wreck lies about 10 yards from the shore, at a depth of about 13ft and had
been protected by sand - until it was uncovered by the storm.
For the past year the archeologists have been working on it in total secrecy -
fearing that divers and swimmers from a nearby Club Med holiday camp could
damage the site.
More than 30 bronze items have been recovered so far. They include an
exquisite 20in-high statuette of Mercury, a Roman God, which was probably the
centrepiece of the lararium, a place of worship for passengers and crew.
"We think the vessel was used as a cruise ship for rich families," said
Giovanni Di Stefano, head of the Ragusa archeological department, who is
overseeing the excavation.
The fondness of Roman aristocrats for lavish ships and boats is well recorded.
The most infamous belonged to the incestuous and lunatic emperor Caligula on
Lake Nemi, near Rome, which he used for every kind of sensual pleasure.
The Roman historian Suetonius described how the boats had "sterns studded with
gems while inside were baths, porticoes, dining rooms and vines and
fruit-bearing trees".
The Romans were reluctant to forgo such luxuries even in the more forbidding
waters at sea. "Ancient sailing was dangerous," said Nicholas Purcell, an
Oxford University don and authority on Roman seafaring. "Boating for pure
pleasure was limited to calm summer waters on lakes and rivers or near the
shore, but sometimes the super-rich needed to travel by sea. Then, it was a
nice demonstration of power to build a ship like a villa."
Di Stefano believes that whoever owned the "Titanic" of Camarina was trying to
make just such an impression. It is too early to get an exact picture of the
boat, but an initial survey suggests that it boasted a suite of rooms,
including two or more ornate passenger lounges, lit by bronze candelabras and
oil lamps. Such rooms, known as tricliniums, were furnished with sofas on
which passengers would recline while talking and eating. They would have been
kept warm at night by small braziers and been served by slaves with wine,
shellfish, meat and garum - a fish sauce.
It may have been during just such a meal that the fatal tempest struck.
Ancient Roman ships were strongly built with pine reinforced by oak to
withstand storms and groundings.
But even this relatively large vessel would have been no match for the
conditions often found in Camarina Bay, which is known as the Bermuda Triangle
of the Mediterranean because of the number of vessels that go missing there.
The bay's fatal feature is its sandbars, which move with the tides and can
often lie just out of sight under the water. But as well as wrecking ships,
the sand also preserves, then exposes them to historians when storms force it
to move.
"We get huge waves in the bay during storms," said Russo. "It is poetic that
the same kind of storm that sunk it and covered it up two millennia ago has
now brought it back to us."
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975970867/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Rediscovering Christ in the age of countless homemade "truths"
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 13:03:13 EST
Christ and postmodernity (1);Rediscovering Christ in the age of
countless homemade "truths"
Saturday, 2 December 2000 0:04 (ET)
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=3D140689
By GENE EDWARD VEITH
(Editor's note: The first church year of the third millennium will begin on
the first Sunday in Advent, Dec. 3. From now until Easter, United Press
International is running a series of articles on the meaning of Christ in
postmodernity. The authors will be prominent scholars, theologians and
ordinary lay people from different Christian denominations. The first
contributor, Dr. Gene Edward Veith, is professor of English at Concordia
University Wisconsin. His book, "Postmodern Times" (1994), was the first
major attempt to analyze this new era from a Christian perspective.
According to Veith's definition, postmodern man no longer accepts absolute
truths. Everybody constructs his own truth. The result can only be chaos. A
s
a remedy Veith proposes a return to the faith in Christ.)
MILWAUKEE, DEC. 1 (UPI) -- With the season of Advent marking for
Christians the first new church year of the new millennium, it is clear tha
t
Christianity has outlived many of its critics. Many pundits a hundred years
ago were predicting that religion would die out in the 20th century, to be
replaced by the "modern" age of science and reason.
Now, it is the age of science and reason that is under attack. The new
"postmodern" ways of thinking are calling rationalism itself into question.
Though postmodernism is also posing challenges for Christianity, challenges
far different than those posed by modernism, it is evident that Christ is
more culturally relevant than ever.
Two thousand years after Christ, as we enter a new century and a new
cultural moment, we are still in the "year of the Lord."
The last century saw the rise of modern art, modern literature, modern
architecture, modern thought, and modern theology, all grounded in the
conviction that the 20th century was the culmination of scientific progress
and that old ways of thinking had to be cast out in favor of anything new.
Ironically, from the vantage point of the 21st century, all of those
"modernist" styles and ideas now seem old-fashioned, na=EFve, and culturall
y
irrelevant.
We are "postmodern," and in field after field the verities of modernism are
collapsing like the Berlin Wall. The conquest of nature has given way to
environmentalism. Abstract art is being replaced by concrete art.
The desire for unity is now a desire for diversity. The hard sciences are
bowing to the social sciences, which insist that culture, not nature, is th
e
source of everything we can know.
Technology keeps advancing, but its focus has shifted from the manufacture
of tangible goods to the manufacture of information.
Last century, the principles of modern science were thought to be
transferable to social problems, so that rationalistic ideologies and socia
l
experts could engineer a progressive utopia. The unintended consequences
were concentration camps, gulags, world wars, and cold wars, and even the
more benign welfare state solutions proved costly failures.
Somehow, the new, unfettered information economy has brought a level of
prosperity that all of the rational systems never could.
Observers in the 1890s, looking ahead to the bright century ahead,
predicted that in the 20th century religion would die out. The modern mind,
it was said, was ruled only by science. There would be no place for the
supernatural, for what could not be empirically verified or rationally
proven.
Many churches and their theologians, afraid of becoming culturally
irrelevant, responded with a new, progressive, "modern theology." The
supernatural claims of Christianity were jettisoned, the Bible was
demythologized, and salvation was turned into an allegory for the real work
of the church -- namely, improving society.
Ironically, it is the mainline churches that embraced modernist theology
that have become culturally irrelevant. Far from dying out, religion of the
most supernatural kind is booming, from megachurches with members in the
thousands to the most esoteric New Age mysticism. Even those who are not
"religious" claim to be "spiritual."
Not that the 21st century is shaping up to be the Utopia that the 20th
century failed to create. For all of the economic boom, the society is
plagued by fragmentation, the lack of consensus on just about anything, and
family breakdowns. Individuals often seem almost paralyzed by cynicism,
indecision and malaise.
There are basically two different ways to respond to the end of modernity.
One way of being postmodern is postmodernism, the new critical stance towar
d
all knowledge that has found its way out of academia into the popular
culture. Just as modernism was marked by skepticism toward everything not
provable by scientific reasoning, postmodernism takes the next step, being
skeptical of rationalism itself.
For academic postmodernists, truth is not something we discover; rather,
it is something we construct. Knowledge and morality, laws and institutions
,
the arts and the sciences, are all social constructions.
There are no absolute truths, only a series of explanatory paradigms,
which have a pragmatic use but which vary from culture to culture.
Some postmodernists stress how truth claims and cultural institutions are
essentially acts of power, of the people in charge imposing their will
through a fa=E7ade of rationality or high moral purpose on groups they are
oppressing (minorities, women, the poor, the homosexual, or other
"marginalized" groups).
Others stress that human beings can create their own truths by their own
will. What may be true for one person may not be true for someone else, and
no one has the right to impose his or her view on anyone else.
Those who believe in abortion call themselves "pro-choice." According to
postmodernist ethics, if a woman chooses to have the baby, that is right fo
r
her. If she chooses to have an abortion, that is right for her.
The content of the decision -- reference to any transcendent moral
absolutes of right and wrong, or any objective information about the nature
of the fetus or ethical arguments -- have no bearing. Having a choice is
what gives the action moral validity.
Postmodernist ethics are also evident in debates about euthanasia (If a
person chooses to die, how can we say no?) and genetic engineering (Parents
should be able to choose the kind of baby they want).
Popular postmodernism is evident in the recent U.S. election debacle.
Modernists assumed that it was possible to hold an election by ascertaining
an objective, mathematical count, a process helped along by the inexorable
objectivity of machines.
But in our first postmodern election, objective certainty was thrown into
doubt. The findings of voting machines were suspect, to be replaced by huma
n
observers interpreting the significance of tiny indentations on pieces of
paper.
For postmodernists, all meaning is nothing more than interpretation, and
interpretation is inherently subjective, variable from one person to
another, and open to ideological bias.
Whether Western democracies built on earlier worldviews that affirmed
objective truth and trans-cultural absolutes can survive postmodernist
skepticism remains to be seen.
But there is another way to respond to the end of modernity, of being
post-modern. Instead of extending the critical spirit of modernity to reaso
n
itself, another option is to recover the pre-modern, bringing back the
insights and achievements of the past and apply them, in new ways, to the
contemporary condition.
This too is happening throughout the culture. Contemporary artists are
experimenting in new ways with classical aesthetics. The new homes being
built have Victorian-era gables, wrap-around porches, and other
retro-stylings, with the addition of all of the high-tech conveniences.
Historical novels and movies are in vogue. Educators are re-discovering
classical education, as a better way of teaching in the computer age. And
millions are having their lives changed by historic, conservative
Christianity, and nearly every denomination is re-discovering its distinct
confessional and spiritual heritage.
To be sure, many churches, emulating the modernist theologians of the last
century, are changing their teachings and practices to fit in with the new
tenets of postmodernism.
Some are jettisoning their doctrines, allowing each member to construct
his or her own beliefs. Some are playing down their traditional moral
teachings, cultivating the postmodern virtue of "tolerance" for all
lifestyle choices.
If modernist churches promoted an ecumenism that tried to bring all
Christian churches into unity, postmodernist ecumenism embraces all
religions, promoting a syncretic universalism (mixing religions) that sees
all faiths as being equally valid paths to God.
Even churches that maintain a veneer of conservatism are flirting with
postmodernism. If beliefs are just consumer choices, persuasion whether in
sales, politics, or religion becomes a matter of marketing, manipulating
customers by the cultivation of image and "meeting the consumers' needs."
Thus, the mass-marketing techniques perfected by the new economy are being
used by many churches to mutate into megachurches, which appeal to a mass
market through entertainment-style worship and positive thinking ("you
create your own reality") sermons.
And yet, at the same time, in an equally-valid response to the end of
modernity, other churches and other Christians are rediscovering ancient
liturgies and ancient theologies.
The practices and beliefs of the early church, the insights of the
Protestant Reformation, the witness of persecuted Christians, all examples
of the faith practiced in the face of cultural hostility and cultural
change, seem uncannily relevant today.
And faith in the One who claimed to be the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, and who brought salvation not by setting up an
earthly Utopia but by dying on a Cross seems to be girding itself for
another thousand years.
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=3D1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/975970827/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [bprlist] Rediscovering Christ in the age of countless homemade "truths"
From: tracy
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 01:46:32 -0500
I read this and I say that the formation of society should be inspired
by GOD. Each person need to read the scriptures and meditate on what
was read. They need to follow there own interest being encouraged by
parents but never steered into a mold created by a society or a church.
We are made in GODS image. Unfortunately most of us had the image that
GOD had for us taken away by a need to make people conform to mans
standards.
The Catholic as well as most churches have a limited view on culture.
Most disaprove of drinking even though there GOD consumed wine. In fact
he turned 30 barrels of water into wine. I figure being that he was
GOD he, was smart enough to know that wine is better than water when
you are throwing a party.
Depression and fear are to of the most devistationg forces. They drive
man cling to his Pride, Vanity, Greed, Laziness, and rage. Trying to
force someone to a mold of what a person should be creates a depressed
person. This oppression of the spirit in time will result in a person
who fears there own thoughts and inspirations. They fear more public
scrutiny or rejection from a loved one. This in time will manifest
itself in a negative way because of the constant stress of the new
dualism found within them. They don't follow the word from within they
are afraid or ashamed of there own ideas because there own ideas get
them into embarrassing situations. With this loss of confidence how are
they going to shine in the eyes of the Lord? No matter how much love
and good intention was there when when they were raised, the "helping"
from others has just created more stumbling blocks and frustration.
Frustrated at the inspiration that comes from with in us. Frustrated at
the inspiration that comes from GOD.
GOD gave us 10 commandments or rules. Why is it that religion creates
10,000?
Truth and reasoning (not compromise) will lead the way to Christ.
Tracy
> Christ and postmodernity (1);Rediscovering Christ in the age of
> countless homemade "truths"
>
> Saturday, 2 December 2000 0:04 (ET)
>
> http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=140689
>
> By GENE EDWARD VEITH
>
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976031236/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Angels prove saving grace
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 4 Dec 00 13:04:15 EST
Angels prove saving grace
Date: 02/12/2000
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/02/text/world24.html
Encounters with extra-terrestrial guardians may not be so rare, writes
Jonathan Petre from London.
Most people regard them as little more than Christmas card adornments, but at
least 800 Britons claim to have had encounters with angels, the first academic
research into the subject has found.
Not only Christians have had these experiences; atheists, agnostics, Muslims
and Jews have also claimed similar visitations, according to Emma Heathcote, a
Birmingham University researcher who has been studying the phenomenon for two
years.
Ms Heathcote said she was astonished by the level of interest when she
appealed to Britons to recount their experiences for her doctorate.
According to her findings, angels tend to "appear" either to impart a message
or to provide comfort or reassurance. They have also "intervened" to save
people from fatal accidents.
Nearly one-third of those who contacted Ms Heathcote reported seeing a
traditional angel with a white gown and wings. Another 21 per cent saw angels
in human form.
Others felt a force or presence, and some detected a distinctive scent or were
engulfed in light.
One of the most striking reports came from a doctor who was doing her training
at Guy's Hospital, London, when a three-year-old girl was brought in after
falling under the wheels of a truck.
"When they whipped her clothes off, there wasn't a mark on her," she wrote.
"The girl came round and immediately asked, 'Where is the man in white?' A
male doctor stepped forward and said, 'I'm here', but the girl said, 'No, the
man in the shiny white suit who picked me up when the lorry went over me'."
Dena Bryant, from Gloucestershire, described how she was frozen to the spot
when two cars collided and one was hurtling towards her. She claimed to have
felt feathers behind her legs and a force lift her out of danger.
David Barber, from Worcestershire, nearly drowned at his local swimming pool
until his late grandmother appeared in angelic form and carried him to the
surface.
Ms Heathcote said angel experiences were a "surrogate religion" and fulfilled
the spiritual longings of people who had abandoned traditional worship.
"While most of the experiences can be easily explained away with psychological
reasoning, there are a number which are not so easy to dismiss," she said.
More than half a church congregation said they saw an angel during a baptism.
"I interviewed the vicar, the curate, the organist and a large number of the
congregation and they all came up with the same story," Ms Heathcote said.
"They were embarrassed and asked me not to disclose their names."
Canon Anthony Thiselton, professor of Christian theology at Nottingham
University, said many theologians were sceptical about the existence of angels
but he was not.
"While I do not take the Old Testament tradition of a heavenly host literally,
it would be human pride to think that God created no other agents than human
beings," he said.
"The problem with experiences of angels in an anecdotal form is that they tend
to be connected with very individualist or not very important things in
people's lives. We have to ask whether God would create a set-up which worked
like that.
"The Bible does, however, refer to guardian angels and it would be very
high-handed to rule out their existence."
The Telegraph, London
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/975970845/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Inside China/Russia Today items (12/4/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:15:01 -0500
CHINA PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR YUGOSLAVIA'S DEMOCRATIC
REFORMISTS BELGRADE -- Once a staunch ally of former leader Slobodan
Milosevic, China on Sunday pledged open support to the government of
reformist President Vojislav Kostunica, with better bilateral ties and further
investment in Yugoslavia's shattered economy.
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=226555&text
China is Russia's Most Important Partner (4Dec.00)
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=226887
Grandchildren of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to Meet
(http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226577)
Mighty Quake Rocks Russia's South, No Casualties (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226561
Japanese Foreign Minister May Visit Russia Soon after December 18
(4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226620
Russian Defense Minister Heads to NATO, London Talks (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226688
Russia: Analysis From Washington -- 'The Face of the State' (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226839
Less Than a Third of Russian Army Helicopters are Operational (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226640
Putin Reports to Ministers on CIS Summit (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226639
Chechens Kill Seven Russian Troops, Blast Supply Train Says Rebel
Spokesman
(3Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226515
Two Russian Troops Killed in Chechnya (2Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226419
Newspaper Says Chechen Guerillas Fight in Palestinian Territories (2Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226436
Russian Soldier, 11 Rebels Killed in Chechnya (1Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226171
Ancient Princess Preserved by Permafrost (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226635
Moscow Started a "Punitive Operation" against Georgia (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=226631
Capital Goes Dark as Russia Cuts Energy
Pravda (4Dec.00)
http://www.russiatoday.com/frames/frames.php3?url=http%3A%2F%2Fenglis
h.pravda.r
u%2Fmain%2F2000%2F12%2F04%2F1272.html
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976026186/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Israel to launch civilian satellite today
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:15:01 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 03:47:14 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Israel to launch civilian satellite
today, Israeli Defense Ministry expected
to be customer
Ha'aretz: Israel to launch civilian satellite today, Israeli Defense
Ministry expected to be customer
By Amnon Barzilai Ha'aretz Defense Correspondent Ha'aretz 5 December 2000
Israel's first civilian photography satellite will be launched from Siberia
today at 2:30 P.M. Israel time.
The Eros, one of Israel's flagship efforts to find civilian applications for
military technology, will be launched on a Russian rocket. Israeli
technicians will monitor the launch both on-site and in a special
communications room in the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel.
Once launched, the satellite will undergo a series of tests. If all goes
well, it will broadcast its first pictures in a few weeks.
Eros officially has the ability to photograph objects as small as 1.8
meters, but foreign publications put its image resolution capablity at
better than 1 meter, making it competitive with American satellites.
Eros is also the lightest commercial satellite in the world at only 250
kilograms. This enables it to be launched relatively cheaply. Its light
weight also gives it greater maneuverability, enabling it to take a series
of photographs from different angles very quickly.
The satellite will orbit the earth at a distance of 480 kilometers, and will
complete one revolution every 90 minutes. It is programmed to maintain a
fixed relation with the sun, such that it will cross every point on the
globe at exactly 12 noon in that place.
Eros was built by the Imagesat company, a joint venture between Israel
Aircraft Industries, El Op Electro Optic Industries and American and
European investors from the Pegasus group. It was the vision of American
businessman Steven Wilson, who serves as a consultant to the project, but
was based on technology used in IAI's Ofeq-3 spy satellite.
Today's launch is slated to be the first of eight Eros launches between now
and 2004. In the future, Imagesat hopes to develop a radar satellite that
can photograph also at night and in heavy cloud cover. Once all eight
satellites have been launched, the network will be able to photograph every
location on earth every few hours.
The company is also planning a second generation of 300-kilogram satellites
with an orbit at a distance of 600 kilometers and a resolution capability of
82 centimeters.
Imagesat estimates the market potential for space photography at some $2
billion a year. It hopes to capture 30 percent of this market. Eros is
expected to earn over $50 million in revenues next year alone.
The company does not release information about its customers, but Asian
countries such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia are widely expected to
purchase time on the satellite to monitor their rice harvests. The Israeli
Defense Ministry is also expected to be a customer.
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976026186/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Israel wants UN observers in Shaba Farms
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:15:01 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 03:40:11 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Israel wants UN observers in Shaba Farms
Ha'aretz: Israel wants UN observers in Shaba Farms
By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent Ha'aretz 5 December 2000
Israel has asked the United Nations to station observers in the area of the
Shaba Farms, near the Lebanese border, as this region has become the focus
of Hezbollah attacks. The UN's Middle East envoy, Terje Larsen, has promised
to look into Israel's request.
Hezbollah claims that the Shaba Farms area is occupied Lebanese territory,
and both Lebanon and Syria are backing this claim. The UN, however, has
certified the region as Syrian on the basis of maps of the international
borders, and therefore not included in Israel's pullback from Lebanon.
Since the UN considers the area part of the Golan Heights, Israel has asked
that unarmed observers from the UN's special force on the Golan be placed
there. UNIFIL, the armed UN force in Lebanon, cannot deploy in Shaba because
of the UN's ruling that the area is not part of that country.
Israel has warned Syria and Lebanon in recent days that continued Hezbollah
attacks are likely to ignite the entire border, and has demanded that Syrian
President Bashar Assad restrain Hezbollah.
Senior government sources say Israel insists on retaining the disputed
region as a matter of policy. "We agreed to a unilateral withdrawal from
Lebanon, but not from the Golan, and we will not vacate any Syrian territory
without an agreement," said one source. "If we withdraw unilaterally from
Shaba Farms, we will be expected to withdraw tomorrow from the Golan
Heights."
The sources noted that after Israel's withdrawal, France had raised the idea
of dismantling UNIFIL with the UN Security Council. However, this idea was
shelved due to the continuing tension in the North. The UN has also shelved
another plan, of increasing UNIFIL to 7,900 men, and has instead increased
it to only 5,600.
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976026184/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Election uncertainty in U.S. threatens spec
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:15:01 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 04:11:39 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Election uncertainty in U.S. threatens
special aid to Israel, $225 million for Egypt
and $75 million for Jordan
Ha'aretz: Election uncertainty in U.S. threatens special aid to Israel, $225
million for Egypt and $75 million for Jordan.
By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent Ha'aretz 5 December 2000
The special military aid package which the American administration has
requested for Israel seems increasingly unlikely to be approved by Congress
in the near future, government sources said yesterday.
The root of the problem is the battle over the American presidency, which
has increased the rift between Republicans and Democrats and made it harder
for them to agree on anything.
Congress reconvenes today after a recess of several weeks, and one of the
items on its agenda is the administration's request for an additional $450
million in aid to Israel next year, plus $350 million the following year.
The administration has also asked for an extra $225 million for Egypt and
$75 million for Jordan.
But according to government sources, Congress is largely on hold pending the
results of the presidential elections. Congressmen have told Israeli
officials that the timing is poor politically, and have demanded
clarifications as to why Israel needs the money.
The money is intended to compensate Israel for the costs of the withdrawal
from Lebanon and to help it prepare for the growing strategic threat from
Iran, which has developed advanced ground-to-ground missiles.
Secretary of Defense William Cohen told Prime Minister Ehud Barak two weeks
ago that if Republican candidate George W. Bush is declared the next
president, it will be harder to pass the package, because a Republican
Congress will not want to bind the incoming president with monetary promises
made by his predecessor. If Vice President Al Gore is elected, however, he
is considered likely to back President Bill Clinton's request.
Barak raised the issue in a telephone call to Clinton last Friday. Clinton
promised to look into the matter, but declined to promise any results.
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976026188/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Breaking News-Israel items [3,2,1] (12/5/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:15:02 -0500
BreakingNews-Israel
1. High Court rejects appeal of convicted spy
2. Acre gas station attendant killed=09
3. Ambulance attacked by stone-throwers en route to Bet Shemesh=09
4. AP: Syrian infiltrates into Israel=09
5. GiloCam goes live =96 See the shooting attack as they happen=09
1. High Court rejects appeal of convicted spy
(BNI-DEC.5) The High Court of Justice on Tuesday morning rejected an
appeal on behalf of convicted spy Nachum Manbar, who is serving a 16-year
jail term after it was established he sold components for non-conventional
weaponry to Iran.
The court rejected the appeal, stating that Manbar made his decision,
placing monetary gain over the security of the State of Israel.
His attorneys indicated an appeal to a larger forum of High Court justices
may be forthcoming in the future.
++++
2. Acre gas station attendant killed
(BNI-DEC.5) Gas station attendant Yaakov Halfon was killed on Monday
night. His mortally wounded body was discovered by an area routine police
patrol but due to the numerous stab wounds, nothing could be done to save
him. Police are investigating, having indicated nothing was taken from the
station located at the southern entrance to Acre. Both criminal and
nationalistic motives are being probed.
++++
3. Ambulance attacked by stone-throwers en route to Bet Shemesh
(BNI-DEC.5) An emergency medical service ambulance responding from the
Jerusalem station was attacked by stone-throwers on the way to Bet
Shemesh
on Tuesday. The windshield of the vehicle was blown out as a result but
fortunately, there were no injuries.
Over 45 ambulances were destroyed or partially damaged since the start of
the PA=92s Al-Aqsa Intifada on Sept. 29, with over 35 being from the
Jerusalem area. Since the start of the violence, all Jerusalem district
MDA ambulances have had their glass windows replaced by stone resistant
Lexan windows as are used by motorists living in Yesha communities.
The Tuesday attack occurred near Shar Hagai on the Jerusalem/Tel Aviv
Highway.
++++
4. AP: Syrian infiltrates into Israel
(BNI-DEC.5) According to an Associated News Agency report, a Syrian
citizen managed to infiltrate into northern Israel on Tuesday but was soon
thereafter apprehended by police.
The infiltrator explained he was seeking employment, telling authorities
that he crossed into Israel at the Sheeba Farm area where there is no
border fence.
++++
5. GiloCam goes live =96 See the shooting attack as they happen
(BNI-DEC.5) The new GiloCam camera providing live pictures of Bet Jala is
now live and available to the public at http://www.gilocam.com/
Gilo is a residential neighborhood of about 40,000 which lies within the
municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and of Israel as defined by Israeli law.
Shooting attacks are being launched from the adjacent Christian Arab
village of Beit Jala.
Israel believes that the attacks are a deliberate attempt by the
predominantly Molsem Palestinian militias to draw the Christian world into
the conflict by provoking Israeli reprisals.
As a result, Israel has done its utmost to respond to the nightly attacks
on Gilo with the greatest possible restraint, pinpointing only those
buildings from which the attacks have been launched.
The camera has been mounted atop the home of Likud MK Dr. Uzi Landau,
who resides on Gilo=92s Anafa Street.
-----------------
BreakingNews-Israel
1. IDF Commander to receive bulletproof vehicle=09
2. Three Arab suspects apprehended=09
3. Another shooting attack from Otzarin=09
4. Khan Yunis road opens despite protests=09
5. Protests at site of Peduel attack=09
1. IDF Commander to receive bulletproof vehicle
(BNI-DEC.5) Upon the insistence of the General Security Service (GSS/Shin
Bet), IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz will be provided with an
armor-plated bulletproof vehicle.
IDF sources indicate Mofaz is not too excited over the decision but is
compelled to comply with the demands made by the security agency. As
such,
work in underway to prepare his BMW 720 at a cost of NIS 500,000.
It is believed the decision follows Israel=92s recent assassination against
a senior Tanzim commander near Bethlehem as well as the IDF=92s aerial
assaults on Fatah command headquarters in Gaza. Following the
assassination of the Tanzim leader, it was announced in the PA media that
Mofaz was to be considered as a =93wanted person=94 and revenge would be
sought for ordering the mission.
++++
2. Three Arab suspects apprehended
(BNI-DEC.5) Two Hebron area Arabs are in custody for their alleged
involvement in stone-throwing attacks against Israeli vehicles on the
Jerusalem Hebron road.
A third suspect, a resident of the Ramallah area, is suspected of having
participated in a firebomb attack against a public bus in which several
passengers were injured.
++++
3. Another shooting attack from Otzarin
(BNI-DEC.5) Two vehicles traveling near the Arab village of Otzarin were
fired upon on Tuesday morning. The vehicles were hit by gunfire but there
were no casualties.
On November 24, Petah Tikvah resident, 40-year-old Ariel Jeraffi was
killed in a shooting attack at the same area and a few days later, Tapuach
resident 50-year-old Avraham Elon was critically injured in another
shooting attack. Elon remains in Tel HaShomer Hospital at this time,
recuperating from gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen and hand.
The attacks occurred by the village situated in Samaria between Tapuach
Junction and the Jewish community of Migdalim. Following the latest
attack, the IDF closed the road to civilian vehicular traffic.
++++
4. Khan Yunis road opens despite protests
(BNI-DEC.5) The Khan Yunis/Gaza road was opened on Tuesday in
accordance
with IDF plans despite strong objections from the local Jewish community
leaders.
Soldiers from the IDF=92s Engineering Corps placed concrete dividers along
the road which is now divided into separate lanes for Jewish and Arab
motorists. Jewish leaders stated the move was absurd, with one resident
comparing it to Belfast. Residents pointed out that although the concrete
does provide a division, it in no way precludes the possibility of a
shooting or bombing attack due to the large gaps between the concrete
fixtures.
Others stated the concrete was not enough to prevent additional terror
attacks on the road Residents pointed out that although the concrete does
provide a division, it in no way precludes the possibility of a shooting
or bombing attack due to the large gaps between the concrete fixtures. ,
such as the November 20th bombing attack against a schoolbus from Kfar
Darom which killed community residents Miriam Amitai and Gabi Biton as
well as seriously wounding others, including small children.
As the Arab vehicular traffic resumes on the road closed following the
schoolbus attack, Jewish community residents are maintaining their protest
village, demanding the road remain off limits to PA residents.
++++
5. Protests at site of Peduel attack
(BNI-DEC.5) Jewish residents of Samaria on Tuesday morning held a protest
near the Arab village of Bruchin, where an Israeli motorist, a resident of
nearby Peduel, was shot and lightly wounded on Monday night on his way
home.
Protesters vow to remain at the area until the IDF agrees to establish a
presence on the location between the Samarian communities of Barkan and
Peduel.
-------------------
1. Civilian patrols to begin on Minharot road during evening hours
2. Roadside bomb safely neutralized near Avnei Chafetz in Samaria
3. Exchange of gunfire at Kalandia=09
4. Israeli shot by IDF while running checkpoint=09
5. Recap of Monday night in Judea, Samaria & Gaza =96 events not reported
earlier by BNI=09
1. Civilian patrols to begin on Minharot road during evening hours
(BNI-DEC.5) According to an Israel Radio report, residents of Judea will
begin authorized armed patrols of the Minharot road which connects the
southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo with the Gush Etzion area of
Judea. Persons participating in the patrols during the evening and
nighttime hours are all qualified to hold weapons and they have conferred
with IDF commanders and legal experts.
Since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on Sept. 29, the road has been
closed dozens of times, cutting off the only direct route from southern
Jerusalem to the Gush communities. Persons in the government last month
have spoken of constructing a bypass to the Minharot bypass road, a
suggestion that was flatly rejected by Gush residents and leader, Shaul
Goldstein. It was pointed out that the Minharot is the most expensive
bypass road in the country and involved bringing foreign engineers to
assist in the construction of its two tunnels.
Gush residents and leaders stated the government and IDF are compelled to
do whatever necessary to provide safe travel on the road and must confront
rather than bypass the problems of daily terror.
++++
2. Roadside bomb safely neutralized near Avnei Chafetz in Samaria
(BNI-DEC.5) Bomb demolition experts were summoned on Tuesday morning
after
a roadside explosive device was discovered in northern Samaria near the
community of Avnei Chafetz. The device was neutralized without incident.
++++
3. Exchange of gunfire at Kalandia
(BNI-DEC.5) Israeli and PA forces were involved in a gunfight on Tuesday
morning at the Kalandia Refugee Camp north of Jerusalem and south of the
PA autonomous city of el-Bireh. There were no immediate reports of
injuries.
++++
4. Israeli shot by IDF while running checkpoint
(BNI-DEC.5) An Israeli who failed to heed warning shots fired by IDF
soldiers was shot on Monday night while passing an IDF checkpoint in
Samaria without stopping.
According to troops manning the checkpoint, the motorist did not respond
to signals and then warning shots to stop for an inspection, prompting
soldiers to open fire in accordance to protocol. The occupant of the car
was injured lightly by gunfire and transported to Meir Hospital in Kfar
Saba.
++++
5. Recap of Monday night in Judea, Samaria & Gaza =96 events not reported
earlier by BNI (BNI-DEC.5) IDF forces operating near and north of Jenin
were attacked by gunfire. No injuries. Shots were also fired at the Bezeq
base south of Jenin. No injuries.
A roadside explosive device was placed by terrorists on the Jenin bypass
road. Soldiers spotted them as they were setting the device in place and
opened fire. The explosive device was safely neutralized. No injuries.
In Gaza, shots were fired at the Neve Dekalim industrial zone as well as
IDF positions in Gush Katif. No injuries. A roadside explosive was
detonated against a military convoy near the Sufa Checkpoint in Gaza.
Soldiers returned fire. No injuries or damages.
++++
News items published by BNI (BreakingNews-Israel) may be distributed,
copied, posted providing the websites and other forums carrying the
stories display the footer below in plain view on the same page with the
news.
++++
To subscribe to the BreakingNews-Israel list, send a blank email message
to 44828-subscribe@listbot.com
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976026188/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] UN condemns Saddam for 'widespread torture'
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:46:59 -0500
UN condemns Saddam for 'widespread torture'
A UN resolution condemns the use of terror to stifle all forms of oppositio
n to
the Iraqi strongman's rule
December 05, 2000, 10:32 AM UNITED NATIONS (Agencies) - The UN
General Assembly strongly condemned what it called massive and
systematic human-rights violations in Iraq under the regime of President
Saddam Hussein.
The resolution adopted by 102 votes with three against and 60 abstentions
condemned the use of terror to stifle all forms of opposition to the Iraqi
strongman=92s rule.
It specifically mentions the suppression of freedom of thought, expression
and association, threats against exiled opponents of the regime, political
murders and the widespread use of torture by the regime.
Last year=92s vote on a similar resolution was 100-3-52.
The resolution condemned "the systematic, widespread and extremely grave
violations of human rights" that resulted in what it said was an "all-perva
sive
repression and oppression sustained by broad-based discrimination and
widespread terror."
It also condemned "widespread, systematic torture and the maintaining of
decrees prescribing cruel and inhuman punishment as a penalty for
offenses."
Iraq makes frequent use of the death penalty, as well as summary and
arbitrary executions, political killings and enforced or involuntary
disappearances, the resolution said.
Libya, Mauritania and Sudan opposed the resolution. Those nations, which
abstained, were mostly Arab and Muslim.
The General Assembly appealed to the Iraqi government to abide by
international human rights treaties and force the military and security for
ces
to respect international law.
It also called for sweeping judicial reforms that would make the judiciary
independent and punish any extra judicial killings. Political opposition sh
ould
not be subjected to intimidation and repression, it said.
Iraq should respect the human rights of all ethnic and religious groups, th
e
resolution continued. It urged the government "to cease immediately its
repressive practices aimed at the Iraqi Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmen" who
have been subject to deportations.
It also said authorities should stop immediately draining the southern mars
h
areas, where Muslim Shiites live, saying such actions had "provoked
environmental destruction and a deterioration of the situation of the civil
ian
population."
The General Assembly urged Iraq to permit a visit by a human rights
rapporteur, Cypriot diplomat Andreas Mavrommatis, who has compiled a
report from evidence collected in other countries.
His survey, released in October, cites an Iraqi defector, who alleged recei
ving
videotape showing the rape of a female family member in a bid to persuade
him to stop opposition activities.
"The most disturbing of the recent complaints related to the special
rapporteur concerns harassment, intimidation and threats against the
families of Iraqi opposition members residing abroad to induce them to stop
their activities," Mavrommatis wrote.
This resolution is the result of a UN investigation into human rights viola
tions
in Iraq and comes at a time when support is weakening for sanctions
imposed after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this story Arabia on Line =A9
=A9 2000 Arabia Online Ltd.
http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,News|34758,00.html
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976027970/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Government said ignoring seriousness of water crisis
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 10:44:07 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: BSaphir
Date sent: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 22:08:42 EST
Subject: Government said ignoring seriousness of water crisis By David Rudge
To: freemanlist@lists.io.com
Editor's note:
Most of Israel's water comes from the Golan & from the underground
aquifers under Judea and Samaria. Normal people would not think of
giving away their water supply especially if there is a shortage.
The Jerusalem Post
Government said ignoring seriousness of water crisis
By David Rudge
HAIFA (December 5) - The country's water resources are on the verge of
catastrophe and the government is not doing enough to avert the
crisis, Mekorot chairman Uri Saguy said yesterday at a meeting of the
national water company's board of directors.
Saguy said the decision-makers are apparently unaware of the extent of
the crisis and will only do something when the taps run dry.
He called on the government for a national assessment of the situation
to take immediate remedial steps, especially over the establishment of
desalination plants.
Saguy described the proposal to import fresh water from Turkey as an
optical illusion, indicating that it would not solve the problems
caused by the severely depleted state of Lake Kinneret and the
nation's main underground reservoirs, the Coastal and Mountain
aquifers.
"If there is no fundamental change [in government policy] in the
immediate future, there won't be water next year to meet basic
requirements," Saguy warned.
He maintained that the government only reacts to problems when they
reach catastrophic proportions. "I therefore declare that there will
be a catastrophe next year," he said.
Saguy said there would be drinking water of one form or another,
although agriculture might even be decimated, and there would be
similar effects on the urban environment.
Furthermore, Israel has international commitments to supply water to
the Jordanians and the Palestinians from sources that are rapidly
drying up. "We behave as if the problem is not ours, but it is and
then some," said Saguy.
The level in Lake Kinneret is at its lowest mark in recorded history,
while the aquifers are in a similarly depleted state.
The proposal to import water from Turkey talks about 25 million cubic
meters in the first year with an option to double that.
According to water experts, that is a miniscule amount when
considering the fact that around 270 million cu.m. water is lost from
the Kinneret every year to summer evaporation.
Lake Kinneret Authority chairman Zvi Orenberg said the level of the
lake has remained static in the past few days at just 20 centimeters
above the adjusted red-line mark.
He warned that if rainfall this winter is only average or even
slightly above average, it would not sufficiently replenish the lake
to prevent a drop below the new red-line mark by this time next year.
"The situation is grim and would be catastrophic if we do not receive
the bountiful rainfall that everybody is hoping and praying for this
winter," said Orenberg.
In fact the level in the Kinneret does not have that much farther to
drop before it reaches the level, where Mekorot would have to cease
pumping from the lake into the National Water Carrier.
The pumps were originally set so that if the level were to reach this
point, they would not be able to operate.
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976031237/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Daily World Affairs Report items (12/4/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 12:30:12 -0500
AMERICA'S BOOM COULD TURN INTO THE BIG BUST
In Tom Wolfe's classic American novel of the '80s, The Bonfire of the
Vanities, the hero, Sherman McCoy, was a bond trader, a "master of the
universe". At a dinner with Manhattan socialites, McCoy is uncertain about
how to introduce himself. Does he say he made $980,000 last year, or
would that be unspeakably crass? So he said: "Oh, I try to sell a few bonds
for Pierce & Pierce." He smiled ever so slightly, hoping the modesty of the
statement would be taken as a sign of confidence to burn, thanks to
spectacular achievements on Wall Street.
By the end of the '80s, and the presidency of George Bush Sr, Wall Street's
masters of the universe were in retreat. So were characters such as
Gordon Gekko, played masterfully by Michael Douglas in the film Wall
Street, who wore their greed with pride. When Bush was voted out in 1992,
the economic recovery that was to turn into the longest in America's history
had begun. Few, however, believed it, or had high expectations of the era
that would be ushered in with Bill Clinton.
To everybody's amazement, the Clinton era turned out to be one in which
America enjoyed an extraordinary economic renaissance. Helped
considerably by the guiding hand of Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve
chairman, and by a Congress that tied the White House's hands on the
budget, America underwent an unexpected transformation.
There were those who warned it would all be unsustainable, that
Americans had lost the savings habit and that the breakneck growth in the
economy had its alarming counterpart in a sharply widening American
balance of payments. For the new masters of the universe, the Jeremiahs
simply did not understand. The Nasdaq was, in effect, a statement of hope
in the future. The new economy meant new ways of valuing companies.
Technology was the way forward.
And so, in what now looks like a final mad flurry, the Nasdaq surged
upwards, doubling between the summer of last year and March of this year,
when it topped 5,000. Then the bubble burst, and has carried on bursting.
Last week the Nasdaq hit a level just above 2,500, half its March peak and
a massive wipe-out of American wealth.And part of the reason was a very
old one - concern that many technology companies would not be able to
achieve decent profits any time soon. Economists who had looked for a
gentle glide path for the American economy, a soft landing, now fear
recession, a hard landing. The first Bush era was difficult for the economy.
The second, if that is what it is to be, could also be bumpy.
America has kept the world economy going throughout the Clinton era. An
American downturn would also expose latent problems in Latin America
and Asia, and could trigger a second global financial crisis. A dark
economic shadow could cloud next year's general election. An American
hard landing, which some in Europe have been quietly yearning for, would
not only boost the euro, but also it could lead to a reassessment of the
American model. On Friday, the Nasdaq was picking up again amid hopes,
that could be premature, that the long slide is over. But when America
sneezes, we still catch a cold. And if America gets the flu, we should all
take to our beds. (The London Times)
BACK AGAIN
Is Saddam Hussein, 10 years after being driven from Kuwait in the Gulf
War, about to become the hero of the Arab masses once again? The
Middle East peace process rose from the ashes of Iraq in the wake of Mr.
Hussein's 1991 defeat. Now, the reviled dictator is using its collapse and the
spread of anti-Americanism in the region to polish up his image as a pan-
Arab leader. His belligerent speeches are reawakening old fears in Israel.
With the latest Palestinian intifada in mind, he recently advised Jews to
leave their homeland as quickly as possible. He has also called on Arabs to
target both Jewish and American installations. Almost in passing, he also
called on them to overthrow the Gulf monarchies as well.
Surprisingly, his demands are falling on deaf ears this time -- at least outside
the Arab world. They are falling on fertile ground among
Moslems,however. And Baghdad leaves no doubt that these words are to
be followed by deeds. While month after month, Iraqis are dying as a direct
result of the UN's sanctions, Mr. Hussein -- to the detriment of his
suffering people -- has sent 50 truckloads of food and medicine to the
Palestinians via Jordan. Palestinians shot by Israeli soldiers are being
airlifted by Jordan's air force to Iraqi hospitals. Tens of thousands of Iraqis
are said to be waiting to fight side by side with their Arab brothers in an
Israeli-Palestinian war. Yet what would have caused widespread anxiety a
few months ago appears to worry nobody today. Furthermore, just 10 years
after Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, Baghdad has been rehabilitated -- and
not just in the Arab world.
Brick by brick, Mr. Hussein has pulled down the wall of political isolation.
Austria, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates -- following the example
set by Switzerland, Japan, Spain, France, Italy, Egypt, Bahrain and Qatar --
are preparing to redeploy embassy staff to Baghdad. Some of Saddam's
erstwhile enemies are even falling over themselves in an effort to court his
favor. The ruling family in Qatar, for example, recently gave Saddam a
Boeing 747 "out of solidarity with the people of Iraq." The US, which --
with the support of Britain -- is fighting an increasingly hopeless battle
against the "rogue state" of Iraq on the UN Security Council, could think of
no better response to this embarrassment than to forbid Qatar's Sheik
Hamad Al-Thani from purchasing U.S. products.
In light of the business opportunities that are bound to arise once sanctions
against Iraq are lifted, political concessions to that country -- which has the
world's second largest proven oil reserves -- are currently worth their
weight in gold. One third of all the contracts Baghdad has awarded in
recent years have gone to those states that have spoken out in favor of
lifting the UN's sanctions: China, Russia and France.
Germany, once Iraq's most important trading partner, currently receives no
more than 1% of tendered contracts. Nor will this change unless Berlin, like
Paris before it, makes a conciliatory gesture, such as allowing direct flights
between the 2 countries. Although the German Foreign Ministry granted
Nissan Hamdun, Iraq's former ambassador to the UN, an audience for the
first time since the Gulf War in October, there is no question of returning
the visit just yet. Germany is deliberately keeping its distance, if only out of
consideration for the US.
Washington failed to come up with a contingency plan for Saddam's
reemergence. The Americans should have staked out a clear position as
soon as the first foreign aircraft began landing at the Saddam Airport in
Baghdad. But nothing happened. Every new government delegation
awarded Mr. Hussein another point. Having arisen in the vacuum created
by Washington's helplessness, this situation can hardly be reversed.
Mr. Hussein, who likes to style himself as both a business partner for the
West and as a champion of the Arab cause in the struggle against Israel,
now has played another joker. By suspending oil exports, he aims to touch a
raw nerve in the heavily energy-dependent industrialized world. The
announcement was timed so as to hit the oil markets just as winter was
starting. If Baghdad continues to hold back its oil, the price of crude is
bound to rise, and there is nothing the industrialized world fears more. This
is the price we will pay for the UN's half-hearted transfer of Iraqi oil
revenues from the oil for food program.
Nevertheless, Baghdad can fall back on more than $11bn credit. Thus,
civilians in Iraq, unlike those in the industrialized world, will not suffer
anymore than they do already. Only viewed against this backdrop can we
make sense of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's announcement that
come January, he will begin negotiating a lifting of UN sanctions against
Iraq.And for Mr. Hussein, the current situation is certainly not as
uncomfortable as public opinion worldwide once believed. (Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung - Opinion)
MICHAEL TURNER
(mykelturner@airmail.net)
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976037823/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) DEC/5/00 [5] Hebron cemetery desecrated
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 12:34:53 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: 5 Dec 2000 08:08:14 -0000
From: BreakingNews-Israel <YeshBB@netvision.net.il>
Subject: DEC/5/00 [5] Hebron cemetery desecrated
BreakingNews-Israel
1. No injuries in Hebron shooting=09
2. No injuries in shooting attack on bus in Gush Shilo area=09
3. Hebron=92s Ancient Jewish Cemetery desecrated=09
4. Closed military zone removed by Eli Zahav=09
5. Bereaved mother receives threatening letter=09
1. No injuries in Hebron shooting
(BNI-DEC.5) Shots were fired at Jewish residences in Hebron during the
early afternoon hours on Tuesday. There were no injuries.
++++
2. No injuries in shooting attack on bus in Gush Shilo area
(BNI-DEC.5) A bus was fired upon on Tuesday afternoon near the Benjamin
Regional Council community of Maale Levona, in the Gush Shilo area of
Samaria. There were no reports of injuries in the terror attack.
The bus was a Benjamin Regional Council vehicle that was heading to the
main road, having left Maale Levona. The location of the attack was near a
shooting attack last month in which two Maale Levona residents were
injured by gunfire, one seriously. It is believed the shooting came from
the Arab village of Sinjel.
++++
3. Hebron=92s Ancient Jewish Cemetery desecrated
(BNI-DEC.5) The Ancient Jewish Cemetery in Hebron was targeted by
attackers on Tuesday. A sink and ancient well were smashed causing water
damage, glass memorial candle enclosures were destroyed and tires burned.
The black soot was then smeared on tombstones.
Among those buried in the ancient cemetery is Rabbanit Menucha Rachel,
the
granddaughter of the Bal HaTanya of Chabad.
++++
4. Closed military zone removed by Eli Zahav
(BNI-DEC.5) The closed military zone declared earlier in the day near the
Samarian community of Eli Zahav has been lifted by the IDF. The IDF sealed
the area after Jewish demonstrators who were protesting the deteriorating
security situation refused to leave.
++++
5. Bereaved mother receives threatening letter
(BNI-DEC.5) Ofra resident Naomi Boneh, the mother of Miri Amitai, who was
killed in a bombing attack against a Kfar Darom schoolbus in November,
received a threatening anonymous letter sent from the Tel Aviv area.
The letter told Boneh to =93prepare to join her daughter in a terrorist
grave.=94 Security officials are investigating.
++++
News items published by BNI (BreakingNews-Israel) may be distributed,
copied, posted providing the websites and other forums carrying the
stories display the footer below in plain view on the same page with the
news.
++++
To subscribe to the BreakingNews-Israel list, send a blank email message
to 44828-subscribe@listbot.com
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976038042/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] 'Dog bride' being hounded
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 5 Dec 00 12:39:28 EST
'Dog bride' being hounded
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/051200/detEXC02.asp
Jaideep Mazumdar
(Karmakarpara (Nadia), December 4)
THE 'MARRIAGE' was supposed to free her from evil spirits. Instead it has
stigmatised her for life. While her parents have disowned the 'marriage', she
faces cruel barbs from her friends.
A hamlet in Mohanpur village of Kalyani subdivision, populated almost entirely
by Karmakars, the blacksmiths, shot into infamy when five-year-old Anju was
married off to a two-year-old dog on July 10 this year.
Life for Anju's parents- Subol and Satyami Karmakar- has never been the same
again. They were arrested on July 16 along with Barun Dutta, master of Bullet,
the 'groom'.
Anju was admitted to a primary school soon after her 'marriage'. Her
classmates started teasing her as a "dog's wife" and some seniors suggested
she walk on all fours.
Two days of taunts later, she refused to go to school and is now studying
informally at the local anganwadi centre where her mother works. Her peers and
playmates in the village never tire of reminding her that she is a dog's
'wife'.
Today, she leads a sheltered existence- spending a major part of the day at
her aunt's place playing with her cousins.
She hasn't stepped out of the village since July.
Anju's parents see media as the culprit and blame it for their misfortune.
"All of you gave this simple thing too much publicity. It was nothing- Anju
was accident-prone and God told me in my dreams that she'd be free of evil
spirits if I married her off to an animal. Such cases have happened in the
past. But the media presented a wrong picture," Subol told The Hindustan Times
here today.
But do they regret the whole affair? "What's there to regret? People here will
forget the whole thing. But you people from the media want to keep it alive.
The only thing we regret is having spoken to reporters then and allowing them
to photograph and film our daughter and the 'marriage'," Satyami said. Barun
Dutta has issued a public apology for allowing the 'marriage'.
The priest, who had gone into hiding and then obtained bail to evade arrest,
has been hounded out of the village. "He did not apologise for solemnising the
'marriage'. So we organised a social boycott and asked the villagers not to
patronise his grocery store. He had to leave the village," secretary of the
CPI (M)'s Mohanpur unit, Rafiq Sheikh, said.
Subol admits to having nearly lost his job as a grade IV employee at the
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya's genetic engineering department. But he
doesn't think his daughter has been stigmatised for life."Things will get back
to normal and we'll find a good match for Anju when the time comes."
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976057891/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Document: Knesset Amendment
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 18:01:33 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 14:53:01 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Document: Knesset Amendment
- Restriction on Conclusion of Treaties
passed preliminary reading on 4 December 2000
Document: Knesset Amendment - Restriction on Conclusion of Treaties
passed
preliminary reading on 4 December 2000
Aaron Lerner Date: 5 December 2000
The following is the text of the amendment proposed by MK Benny Elon
that passed a preliminary reading on 4 December by a vote of 49 to
48. The amendment was signed by 61 MKs. Elon=92s spokesperson, Uri
Bank, told IMRA that by while the amendment is not binding until it
passes three readings, it now already has the MORAL standing of a
"sense of the Knesset" that should be respected by Prime Minister
Barak.
The Fifteenth Knesset
Proposed Legislation:
Basic Law: The Government
(Amendment - Restriction on Conclusion of Treaties), 5760 - 2000
1. In the Basic Law: The Government, after Article 40, the following
shall be added:
Restriction on Authority of the Government
40A. Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 40, a government
composed of factions whose total membership does not equal a majority
of Knesset members shall not be authorized to conclude or initial
agreements or international treaties .
In this Article "treaty" is defined as either of the following:
(1) an international agreement executed in writing between the State
of Israel and a foreign state or any foreign entity including the
Palestinian Authority, which establishes or modifies the borders of
the State;
(2) an international agreement executed in writing between the State
of Israel and a foreign state or any foreign entity including the
Palestinian Authority, regarding the transfer of territory which is
under the military control of the State, or to which the State of
Israel has applied, Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration.
Explanatory Notes
When the "Basic Law: The Government" was drafted, the legislature did
not envision a situation in which a minority government would remain
in power without the support of a majority of Knesset members. Under
the current constitutional regime, there are no restrictions on the
authority of a minority government. This legal state of affairs, in
which even a government which does not enjoy the support of a
majority of the Knesset is nonetheless empowered to conclude
international agreements, contradicts the democratic principle and
the rules of good government.
The State of Israel is a democracy in which the Knesset is sovereign.
Though the Prime Minister is directly elected, it would be improper
for him to enter into, or even initial, international agreements
which bind the nation, when his government is not supported by a
majority of the Knesset. Even if, from a formal perspective, an
agreement which is merely initialed still requires the approval of
the Knesset, the political and diplomatic reality would make it
extremely difficult for any future government to refrain from
implementing an agreement which a previous government had initialed.
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-548-0092
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE www.imra.org.il
------- End of forwarded message -------
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976057804/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Weekend News Today items (12/5/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 18:01:34 -0500
Iraq, Syria and Iran's ballistic missile threats provide U.S.-Israeli contracts for
Arrow sales
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Ha'aretz
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- The final stage in the tender issued by Israel Aircraft
Industries (IAI), manufacturer of the Arrow ballistic missile defense system,
among American missile makers for the right to produce the Arrow in the
United States and to market it to other countries, has ended in an
embarrassing, if not alarming, fashion. Raytheon, maker of the Patriot
missile and one of the two companies on the tender's shortlist, has dropped
out of the tender because the study carried out by its marketing department
revealed that the Arrow is not in demand anywhere in the world. Raytheon's
assessment of the situation is that the only countries interested in
purchasing the Arrow are those that, like Israel, fear an immediate ballistic
missile threat.
Israel's Defense Ministry is interested in joint production since the
manufacture of half of the Arrow missiles in the United States would mean
that half of the Arrow's production cost would be funded with the money
provided in the context of American military aid to Israel. The feeling in the
Defense Ministry is that the Arrow can already meet the current threats
posed by the ballistic missiles in the arsenals of Syria, Iran and Iraq.
Besides the need to have a sufficient supply of missiles on hand, Israel must
upgrade them to prepare for the moment when the fragmentation warhead,
currently under development, for the Iranian Shihab-3 missile, becomes
operational.
Lockheed Martin announced that it had an attractive proposal for
collaboration with IAI in the Arrow's manufacture, yet it was also the first
company to drop out. Although no explicit explanation has been given,
officials in the defense establishment and in IAI concluded that a
collaboration with Lockheed Martin, producer of the THAAD (Theater High
Altitude Air Defense) system, would in the end be nothing more than a kiss
of death. What motivation would Lockheed have to further the marketing of
the Arrow to other countries after having spent (so far) billions of dollars on
the THAAD's development? Additionally, Lockheed is collaborating with
Raytheon in the manufacture of the PAC-3 missile, an advanced version of
the Patriot. The PAC-3's technical specifications are similar to the Arrow's
although the interception range of the American missile is more limited.
Hizbullah using Bezeq transmitter to send reports of clashes to Palestinians
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Jerusalem Post
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- Journalists and photographers employed by Hizbullah are
using a transmitter belonging to Bezeq and Capital Studios, the Hebrew daily
"Yediot Aharonot" reports. The Hizbullah TV station, Almanar, is using the
giant Bezeq satellite transmitter which is located in the Elah Valley near Beit
Shemesh to send reports of clashes in the territories. The TV station is said
to be very popular with the Palestinians. The footage is transmitted via
Capital Studios in Gaza and Ramallah, the report says. Capital is owned by
US Jewish tycoon Ron Lauder. The Government Press Office said that it has
no control over the satellite transmissions and has not tried to stop them, the
paper says.
UN Middle East envoy and US Ambassador Indyk: Regional conflict
imminent
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Jerusalem Post
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- The UN's special Middle East envoy, Terje Larsen, has
expressed the fear that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians could
soon turn into a regional conflict. His warning came on the heels of a similar
statement from US Ambassador Martin Indyk, first published in The
Jerusalem Post Internet Edition yesterday. Larsen called on Israel to lift the
closure on the territories.
Greenspan says US economy faces ''risk'' of ''untoward'' events
Weekend News Today
Source: AFP
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday
the US economy faces an "increased risk of untoward events" as economic
growth cools. Speaking to a group of bankers in New York, the central bank
chief said economic growth is slowing to a more "modest" pace. "In periods
of transition from unsustainable to more modest rates of growth, an economy
is obviously at increased risk of untoward events that would be readily
absorbed in a period of boom," he said. "The sharp rise in energy prices, if
sustained, is worrisome in this regard."
Turkey blocks aircraft carrier in Bosphorus strait
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Reuters
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- Turkey said on Tuesday it would bar the passage through
Istanbul's busy Bosphorus straits of a huge, decommissioned aircraft carrier
China said it wanted to convert into a floating pleasure centre. "Passage of
such a massive thing would pose a serious threat for the city, for people, for
the strait itself," Ruhan Cakiroglu, head of the Istanbul Maritime office, told
Reuters. "We are on alert against any other possible attempt by the vessel
to pass the Bosphorus," he said. "Its plans show it is an aircraft carrier,"
said Cakiroglu, who believes the ship was being presented as a commercial
rather than military vessel to assure passage.
He said the 306.5 metre Varyag, purchased from Ukraine, had been denied
passage out into the Mediterranean several times since July and had been
escorted out of Turkish waters. It now waits in the Black Sea. Passage
through the Bosphorus, one of the world's busiest waterways that divides
Asian from European Istanbul, is not normally restricted for commercial
ships in peace time under the 1936 Montreux Treaty.
Russia wants to discuss submarine safety with NATO
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Reuters
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- Russia's defense minister said on Tuesday he hoped
NATO and Moscow could agree on coordinating efforts to save submarine
crews -- but he carefully avoided pointing the finger of blame at the West for
the Kursk disaster. Marshal Igor Sergeyev also said he would discuss a
bilateral agreement with Britain on ways to avoid submarine accidents while
in London later this week after talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Sergeyev also called for deeper and more pragmatic ties with the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Turkey's military to improve border reconnaissance with U.S. high-resolution
satellite
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- Turkey's military will employ a U.S. remote-imaging
satellite to boost reconnaissance along the nation's borders. Turkish defense
officials are discussing with their U.S. counterparts the supply of high-
resolution satellite imagery for Ankara's military. They said the imaging
needs of the military include defense, urban planning and disaster
preparedness and response. The imagery would be downlinked from the U.S.
Ikonos satellite, manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Turkey's Cukurova/INTA
Space Systems and Lockheed Martin have signed a strategic agreement in
which Cukurova will construct a ground station to obtain images from the
Ikonos satellite, with a resolution of one meter.
Israel military sources says Iran and Iraq cooperating for first time to send
weapons to Hizbullah
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Tue Dec 5,2000 -- For the first time, Iran and Iraq are shelving their
differences and have launched military cooperation against Israel. Israeli
military sources said the two longtime foes are now cooperating in ensuring
that Iranian missiles, weapons and other supplies arrive to Teheran's ally
Hizbullah. They said that Hizbullah -- encouraged by Iran and Syria -- has
renewed sporadic attacks along Israel's northern border.
The sources said Baghdad has allowed Iranian planes to transport weapons
through Iraqi air space. The approval was granted after Turkey twice
intercepted Iranian planes with weapons and Katyusha rockets for Hizbullah.
The last interception was reported in early November. The Iranian flights are
now arriving directly to Beirut airport, the sources said. But they added that
Iraq is not the only route used by Iranian planes carrying weapons to
Hizbullah. They said Turkey remains an option.
Israel has raised the Iranian-Iraqi-Syrian cooperation with the Clinton
administration. Officials said the White House -- operating in a political
vacuum in wake of the still inconclusive presidential election last month --
has withheld action and will leave any decisions to a successor
administration. They said the administration is shying away from any
significant support of Israel amid concern that this would further erode the
U.S. position in the Middle East.
Israeli analysts said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is the linchpin in the
new three-way cooperation. They said Saddam has been emboldened by
soaring oil prices and a successful effort to erode Iraq's isolation. Saddam,
who has reportedly honored his threat to end oil exports, is said to believe
that a war with Israel would shatter international sanctions against
Baghdad.
http://216.219.160.226/cgi-
bin/readnews.cgi?day=00_12_5&item=#976049989
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976057804/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Spaceviews News (11/10/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 18:01:34 -0500
"Beanie Baby" Satellites to Ride Russian Rockets
By Robert Myers
Multimedia Producer
SPACE.com
One Stop Satellite Solutions (OSSS) is hoping to do for space
access what Henry Ford did for the automobile -- make it cheap enough for
average folks.
Combining a 10-centimeter (4-inch) "CubeSat" developed by the
University of Stanford, and a horde of demilitarized Russian
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launchers, OSSS can launch your
1-kilogram (2.2-pound) payload for about $45,000. Launching a more
traditional satellite can cost from $3 million to $5 million for the same
weight.
Of course, you can't exactly bundle yourself into a CubeSat.
But scientists, small businesses and creative, well-heeled individuals
could loft just about anything they can think of. Considering that a Palm
III weighs in at 193 grams (6.8 ounces), a lot of computing power could be
fit into that small space.
"You might call this a 'Beanie Baby satellite,'" said Robert
Twiggs, a Stanford University professor and CubeSat's inventor, since the
satellite is about the size of a Beanie Baby box.
Anything larger, "even the size of a lady's hatbox," would
have driven costs back into the stratosphere, Twiggs said.
He developed the satellites so that graduate students and
universities could launch small experiments more frequently.
Commercial applications became apparent later. But the package didn't come
together until they met with Kosmotras, the Russian firm putting Cold
War-era ICBMs to commercial use. As part of a nuclear disarmament
agreement, former Soviet SS-18 ICBMs, now called Dneprs, are slated to
either be used for commercial purposes, or destroyed outright by December
31, 2007.
Twiggs has no end of ideas for ways his cheap and tiny
satellites can be used -- from secure storage of sensitive computer
records that could also be accessed by radio anytime the satellite was in
view, to creating a personal "Sputnik" broadcasting your message around
the world. Some ham radio operators are already on board to launch into
orbit "repeaters," to bounce their radio signals around the globe. A
constellation of the tiny craft could scatter small instruments over large
areas in orbit for broad views.
"Or they could work as an absentee-vote ballot collector,"
added Twiggs wryly.
To avoid adding to the space junk problem though, the CubeSats
would have a short life span: lasting from six months to a year.
"You know with college students, we can't keep their attention
longer than six months," joked Twiggs. To make sure the CubeSats don't
stay up indefinitely, they would normally only be launched up to about 200
kilometers (125 miles).
But if they're launched to a higher orbit, boosting a small
payload to the Moon or even Mars is relatively easy, Twiggs said.
"If you want to put something around Mars, this can do it
affordably," he added.
----------------
EUVE Mission to End: NASA announced Friday it will shut down the
long-running Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) mission next month.
Launched in 1992, EUVE has provided astronomers with their best look
yet at the universe at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, light that is
absorbed by the Earth's ozone layer. Those astronomers lobbied NASA to
keep the mission going for another year, but the space agency decided the
money that would be spent on EUVE -- originally planned for only three
years of operations -- would be better spent on other projects. EUVE will
reenter the Earth's atmosphere in an uncontrolled manner in late 2001 or
early 2002, but should not pose a threat to anyone on the ground.
S P A C E V I E W S
Issue 2000.47
2000 November 20
http://www.spaceviews.com/2000/1120/
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976057804/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Nature/Disease news
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 18:01:34 -0500
Large quakes hit
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: USGS
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- A magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the Andreanof
Aleutian Islands on December 3rd. Then today, a 5.7 quake hit near the
coast of Chiapas Mexico. It was preceded by a 5.3. Quakes around
magnitude 5.0 hit today in several places: El Salvador, Northern Mid-Atlant
ic
Ridge, another in Aleutian Islands, and one near the east coast of Honshu
Japan.
Series of moderate quakes & aftershocks rocks Sierra Nevada
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Yahoo news/AP
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- A series of moderate earthquakes and aftershocks jolted
the Lake Tahoe region near the Nevada-California border early Saturday. The
largest quake, a magnitude 4.8 according to U.S.G.S. estimates, was felt
over a wide area. It hit at 7:34 a.m. about 14 miles NW of Truckee and was
followed over the next hour by 4 smaller temblors, including one measuring
3.2. Three small quakes hit later in the day also. Eric Lamoureux, a
spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services, said the quakes
occurred on a previously unknown fault. ``The state geologist doesn't expec
t
a larger quake from this fault at this point,'' he said. ``But it's a wakeu
p call to
a lot of people. It's important to know that fault lines run up and down th
e
Sierra and that these major quakes can happen anywhere.''
Saturday's quakes caused little damage. A small bridge collapsed near
Colfax and a house chimney toppled near Cisco Grove. ``It was a good quick
jolt and I could hear the timber in the house creak,'' said Carl Brawley, w
ho
was visiting Truckee. The strongest quake woke up people in Reno, 30 miles
to the east of Truckee, and in South Lake Tahoe, 35 miles to the south.
Nine dead as Ebola spreads to Pakistan!
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Electronic Telegraph News
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- NINE people have died in Pakistan from the Ebola virus
and at least three others are sick in the first outbreak of the disease out
side
Africa. The highly infectious disease - that has symptoms similar to typhoi
d
and malaria, but which causes massive internal bleeding and death in as
little as 2 days - has been identified in Karachi, home to 10 million peopl
e.
Experts fear that more cases may have been misdiagnosed and have warned
that a massive campaign is needed to stop it spreading.
Hurricane season 2000 ends as a very busy season
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Weather.com
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- The year 2000 Atlantic hurricane season finally ended. It
was an exceptionally active tropical season, which produced an above-
average number of tropical storms and full-fledged hurricanes. There were 1
4
named storm systems altogether. But, the season was notable for another
reason: only 2 of these systems actually made landfall on U.S. soil. Max
Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center said the U.S. was lucky
this year, but that coastal residents shouldn't let their guard down becaus
e
that luck won't hold out. =93It=92s not a question of if, but when will a m
ajor
hurricane impact the U.S. coast.=94 September of this past hurricane season
was of special note, as 5 hurricanes and 2 tropical storms formed in the
Atlantic, turning September into one of the most active months on record.
The last time seven named tropical cyclones occurred in one month was in
Sept. 1988.
An interesting aspect to 2000 tropical season was that most of the season
took place during what's known as a "neutral phase" of the El Ni=F1o/La Ni
=F1a
cycle. This year the La Ni=F1a of the past couple of years was largely gone
,
yet it was one of the most active seasons on record." Much of the public is
unaware of just how active this hurricane season had been, because few
storms have made landfall in the U.S. But with 14 named storms and eight
hurricanes, 2000 even beat the pre-season predictions.
2000 Atlantic Season:
14 Named Storms....8 Hurricanes....3 Major Hurricanes Normal Atlantic
Season: 10 Named Storms....6 Hurricanes....2 Major Hurricanes
Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season Recap
19 Named Cyclones....6 Hurricanes, 13 tropical storms and 2 tropical
depressions.
Europe's growing concern with Mad Cow Disease
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: BBC
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- Countries all over Europe are urgently stepping up testin
g
as the region of Mad Cow Disease/BSE spreads.
Ireland: Ireland has had 551 cases of the disease since 1989, but 104 of
these have been recorded so far this year. Numbers of affected cattle have
been steadily rising since 1996. The UK: The first cases of BSE-infected
cattle were recorded in the UK in 1986. Feed containing sheep carcasses
was banned in 1988, but BSE cases rocketed reaching a peak of over
36,000 in 1992. Public concern over the disease came to a climax in 1996
when the government admitted it had covered up research which proved a
link between BSE and CJD, the human variant of the fatal disease. The EU
reacted quickly, imposing a strict export ban on British beef and related
products. The Netherlands: The first Dutch case occurred in 1997, but the
Netherlands has seen relatively low levels of BSE infection in its herds. L
ast
week, the Dutch Agriculture Ministry reported the country's 7th case had
been discovered at a farm near Utrecht. This was the first BSE case this
year in the Netherlands and compares with two cases in each of the past
three years. Denmark: Denmark banned animal-based cattle feeds in the
early 1990s, and banned the sale of beef in February 2000 when the first
case of BSE was found in Danish-bred cattle. France: France is at the
center of the BSE fears spreading across Europe. Cases of the disease have
doubled in the last year and the country is also reeling from the scare tha
t
some potentially BSE-infected French beef went on sale in the supermarket
giant Carrefour. Portugal: Since 1997 there have been 391 known cases of
BSE in Portugal. Levels have increased each year, although figures for this
year do not yet show an upturn. Spain:The first two cases of BSE in Spain
were uncovered in November 2000. Belgium: Belgium recorded its first cases
of BSE in 1993. This year, four cows have been slaughtered after being
tested positive. Switzerland: Switzerland has recorded 364 cases of BSE to
date, and along with Ireland and Portugal has seen one of the most rapid
increases in the disease. It is also the only country in the world to test
for
'hidden' BSE in the carcasses of cattle that did not show any signs of the
disease prior to death. These results have doubled Switzerland's previous
total, and prompted fresh concerns that substantial numbers of cases are
escaping detection elsewhere in Europe. Germany: For years, Germany
considered itself an oasis of BSE-free beef in Europe. The government
repeatedly assured the public that German beef was safe. But the discovery
of the country's first two cases shattered this illusion, triggering widesp
read
public concern and anger. "They made fools of us with the long-winded
promises that Germany is safe from BSE," said the Berliner Morgenpost
newspaper. "We should have dealt with BSE earlier and more rigorously,"
admitted Environmental Minister for North Rhine and Westphalia Barbel
Hohn. "Mistakes were made in the past, for which we must now pay the
bitter price," she added. Italy: Italy has banned imports of adult cows and
beef on the bone from France, following revelations that several tonnes of
meat from a BSE-infected herd had gone on sale in French supermarkets.
Italy is France's biggest beef customer, but consumption has slumped by
three-quarters in recent months. The EU reported: "I don't think any member
state can give a guarantee that their beef is BSE-free," said Ireland's
European Commissioner David Byrne.
EBOLA cases now reported at 370 in Uganda
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: UPI
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- 2 more people have been admitted to hospital in Uganda
after contracting the deadly Ebola disease. They were soldiers with the
army's 2nd division based in the town of Mbarara, 280 kilometers SW the
capital Kampala. On Oct. 27, a soldier died of the Ebola fever in Mbarara.
It
was the first reported case outside the northern town of Gulu, which remain
s
the center of the current outbreak. The current 2 soldiers' admission to th
e
hospital brings to 370 the total number of cases reported in the East Afric
an
country since the epidemic was first reported on Sept. 27.
Rampant Famine in North Korea
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Discovery Earth Alert
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- Tony Hall, a United States congressman just completed
a fact-finding tour of North Korea. He reported that famine in the Communis
t
country is one of the great world disasters of the past 50 years. Acute foo
d
shortages have plagued North Korea since 1994, due to a combination of
floods and drought coupled with economic failures. Food production in the
country is down 50 percent since 1999. Many were surviving on only 7 oz. of
food a day, much of it made up of plant material such as twigs, leaves, woo
d
and bark. Many of the plant products are reported to have caused dysentery,
diarrhea and internal bleeding. A recent U.S. congressional report stated t
hat
up to 2 million people in North Korea may have died of malnutrition since
1994.
13 islands sinking into the Pacific Ocean
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Discovery Earth Alert
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- At least 1,000 residents of Papua New Guinea's Duke of
York Atoll are being moved to higher ground as their island homes sink into
the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 40,000 more people who live on the 13 sinking
coral islands will also eventually need to be relocated. The island group s
its
on top of shifting tectonic plates, which have triggered numerous powerful
quakes, volcanic explosions and tsunamis. The area was jolted earlier this
month by a magnitude 6.8 temblor followed by a deadly tsunami. Six years
earlier, the coastal city of Rabaul on New Britain Island was engulfed in a
sh
following a volcanic eruption. The atoll, which is only 13 feet above sea l
evel,
is sinking at a rate of 12 inches a year. It is located in the St. Georges
Channel, which connects the Bismark Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Residents
of the Duke of York Island, the biggest in the group, will be the first to
be
evacuated.
Germans removing forest swastika
Weekend News Today
Lead: Leo
Source: USA Today
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- Forest rangers Monday put their chain saws to a cluster
of trees that form a huge swastika when seen from the air, believed to be t
he
legacy of a forest warden who planted them in 1938 out of enthusiasm for
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Officials in the eastern state of Brandenburg say the relic near the rural
village of Zernikow, some 60 miles north of Berlin, is an eyesore in what i
s
now a nature reserve. An attempt to make the swastika disappear five years
ago failed because when some of the larches were cut down, the others grew
to fill in the spaces. The swastika popped up again this fall for anyone fl
ying
overhead, when the trees turned dark yellow against the surrounding green
pines.
''This is something of a wound, so we really want to do something,'' state
agriculture ministry spokesman Jens-Uwe Schade said. ''We want to finally
bring this to a conclusion.'' Officials reportedly also fear the forest cou
ld
become a neo-Nazi pilgrimage site. In addition, the swastika display is
technically illegal under German law.
Quake & volcanic eruption rocked Mexico City on dawn of presidential
inaugaration
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: ABC news
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- (Dec.1rst news) An earthquake rocked Mexico City hours
before the inauguration of President-elect Vicente Fox on Friday morning.
And Popocatepetl volcano that towers over the capital shot out a plume of
ash also. "Popo" is about 40 miles SE of Mexico City. There were no
immediate reports of damage or injuries from the earthquake, which caused
buildings in the capital to sway at about 8:10 a.m. Mexico City is often
affected by quakes centered hundreds of miles away. The 17,886-foot
Popocatepetl sent out more than a mile-long plume of ash and gas at dawn
on Friday. People were warned to stay at least 6 miles away from the
volcano. The volcano has erupted repeatedly in recent years.
Rare snow hits southeastern states
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Weather.com
Mon Dec 4,2000 -- Many schools either were closed or opening late today,
as parts of eastern North Carolina and SE Virginia dig out from a rare
snowstorm. Road conditions were poor across the region, after nearly a foot
of snow piled up on Sunday. "We're recommending people stay off the roads
and stay home if at all possible," said Dana Warren, a district secretary w
ith
the North Carolina Highway Patrol in Rocky Mount. Roads are slippery and
there have been numerous traffic accidents, although most of them have
been "fender benders," Warren said. The wintry weather hit mostly the
eastern third of North Carolina where as much as 10 inches of snow was
reported in Suffolk, Va. and snow flurries were seen as far south as Myrtle
Beach, S.C.
http://216.219.160.226/cgi-
bin/readnews.cgi?day=3D00_12_4&item=3D#975968933
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/_/_/976057807/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed with a mature, discerning eye.