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DAILY Prophecy News at a Glance Read about the ANTI Christ BIBLE Here The EU Religious Leaders are PROMOTING IT! |
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BIRD FLU OUTBREAK: 'WORST YET TO COME'
September 15, 2004
The Straits Times reports: “Asia faces a bird flu outbreak of unprecedented proportions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It warned that avian influenza could develop into a global pandemic if more was not done to detect and eradicate it.
'This outbreak is historically unprecedented. Its infectious agents don't respect international boundaries,' Dr Shigeru Omi, the organization’s director for the Western Pacific, told some 300 member-state delegates here.
Health officials from across Asia raised alarm bells yesterday over the outbreak.
Since last November, 39 cases of the H5N1 strain of avian flu has been detected among humans in the region, with 28 people killed in Thailand and Vietnam.
The delegates stressed that increased collaboration between nations and more study was needed to combat the virus, which resurfaced in July in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China after an earlier crisis ended.
The WHO has said the virulent virus was circulating more widely in the region than originally believed.
A huge flow of people, goods and foods around Asia and lax animal husbandry practices are prime concerns.
But most worrisome is the fact that humans lack immunity to the virus…”
Ivan Spurs Evacuations Along Gulf Coast
September 14, 2004
PENSACOLA, Fla. - Rather than roll the dice on where 160-mph Hurricane Ivan might strike, Gulf Coast residents from Florida's Panhandle all the way to the bayous of Louisiana spent Monday boarding up their houses, tying up their boats and making plans to evacuate.
Car Bomb Kills at Least 32 in Iraq
September 14, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded near a police station in Baghdad early Tuesday as dozens of Iraqis were applying to join the force, killing at least 32 people and wounding 88, officials said.
The blast left a 10-foot crater outside the station at the end of Haifa street, a main Baghdad thoroughfare that has been the scene recently of fierce clashes. Nearby shops and buildings were badly damaged and 10 cars parked nearby were destroyed.
Paramedics picked up body parts scattered across the street and put them into boxes. Anguished men lifted charred bodies and lay them gently on stretchers. Helicopters circled.
Health Ministry spokesman Saad Al-Amili said at least 32 people were killed and 88 wounded.
MINISTERS PREPARE FOR IRAN SHOWDOWN
September 13, 2004
The EU Observer reports: “Diplomats have signaled that time may be running out for Iran to cooperate with the international community, as inspectors prepare to deliver another report on the country’s nuclear activities.
According to European sources today’s meeting in Brussels of EU Foreign Ministers could confirm that Brussels is ready to take a more robust course if Iran continues to defy calls for a freeze on its nuclear activities.
Diplomats say that the EU 25 may agree to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council, a move which would be welcomed in Washington, which has long advocated taking a tougher line against the Islamic Republic.
Referral to the UN would signal the end of the EU’s policy of constructive engagement and could lead to sanctions if Iran does not comply with Security Council resolutions.
At the same time as the meeting in Brussels the International Atomic Energy Agency will meet in Vienna where its head, Mohamad ElBaradei is expected to give another mixed report on Iran's activities.
The EU is expected to react to Mr. ElBaradei’s comments by pressing Iran to pursue EU offers of engagement, according to one source.
And more demands that Iran disclose all of their nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency can be expected…”
NORTH KOREA DENIES NUCLEAR BLAST
September 13, 2004
The Guardian UK reports: “North Korea said today that a huge explosion close to its border with China was part of the planned destruction of a mountain for a hydroelectric project, according to reports.
After requests from Britain and other countries for an explanation for the blast, which reportedly produced a mushroom cloud more than two miles wide, the country's foreign minister, Paek Nam-sun, gave assurances that it had nothing to do with nuclear weapons testing.
British foreign office minister Bill Rammell, who is visiting Pyongyang, said to the BBC that Mr. Paek told him ‘that it wasn't an accident, that it wasn't a nuclear explosion, that it was a deliberate detonation of a mountain as part of a hydroelectric project’.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr. Rammell said he welcomed the explanation because North Korea is such a secretive country. But he had also called on Mr. Paek to allow foreign observers to confirm the claims, he said.
‘I pressed the foreign minister very strongly and said look, you know, if we want to be properly reassured then you should allow international diplomats to actually go to the area and verify the situation on the ground,’ Mr. Rammell told the BBC. He added that Mr. Paek had said he would consider the request.
‘If this is genuinely a deliberate detonation as part of a legitimate construction project then the North Koreans have nothing to fear and nothing to hide and should welcome the international community actually verifying the situation for themselves,’ Mr. Rammell said.
China's government, which has the closest diplomatic relations with communist North Korea, made no immediate comment about the explosion…”
INDONESIA WARNED OF FURTHER TERROR ATTACKS
September 13, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “The United States and Australia have warned that terrorists might be planning another attack in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. The new warning is much more specific than previous alerts.
Australian Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, who visited Jakarta just after the bombing, said Monday that people should avoid a specific apartment complex in south Jakarta that is close to the bombed embassy.
Australia has said a second terror cell belonging to the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, or J.I., could still be active, and Western diplomats in Jakarta say they believe another attack in the near future is a strong possibility.
Almost all embassies have updated their travel warnings, telling their citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Indonesia. They have told those already in the country to avoid places where foreigners are known to congregate.
The embassy bombing was the third attack against a ‘foreign’ target in two years, and most foreign residents of Indonesia are now used to living in an uncertain security environment. Few people have left the country, but security companies have reported a marked rise in requests for their services…”
UNPRECEDENTED ALERT IN ISRAEL OF ATTACK
September 12th, 2004
TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israeli authorities have been placed on what officials termed an unprecedented alert of a mass-casualty Islamic insurgency attack.
Officials said Israel has received information of plans by Islamic insurgency groups to carry out a series of major attacks on Israeli civilians in both the Jewish state and the region over the next week. They said the attacks were being planned in such areas as Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Jordan, Turkey, India's Kashmir region and southern Thailand.The information that we have received from a variety of sources comes down to this: Israelis and the Jews are targets around the region," an official said.
In Israel, officials said, authorities have received 50 alerts of a Palestinian attack. The range of threats includes Palestinian suicide bombings, ambushes on Israeli motorists, mortar and missile strikes and abductions of Israeli civilians and soldiers. They said Israeli authorities foiled 15 Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in August.
With 56 Dead, Ivan Intensifies Off Jamaica
September 11th., 2004
ULL BAY, Jamaica - Hurricane Ivan strengthened to a rare Category 5 storm
capable of catastrophic damage, leaving Jamaica and aiming for the Cayman
Islands with winds reaching 165 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (news
- web
sites) said Saturday. Ivan has killed 56
people across the Caribbean so far this week, including 34 in Grenada and 11 in
Jamaica.
Millions more people are in its path, with Ivan projected to go between the Cayman Islands, make a direct hit on Cuba and then either move into the Gulf of Mexico or hit South Florida.
"If God doesn't help us, I think this is going to be extremely tragic," said Maria del Carmen Boza, a 65-year-old resident of Cojimar, a seaside community in Cuba once frequented by Ernest Hemingway. "All of Cuba is worried. This looks like it's going to be really dangerous."
Blast, Mushroom Cloud Reported in N. Korea
September 11th, 2004
SEOUL, South Korea - A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea (news - web sites), sending a huge column of smoke into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency reported Sunday.
The South Korean government said it was trying to confirm the report of an explosion at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Yanggang province near the border with China. More...
HOMEMADE CHEMICAL BOMB COULD BE AL QAEDA'S GREATEST THREAT
September 11, 2004
ABC News reports: “A U.S. government surveillance tape obtained by ABC News shows suspected al Qaeda operatives delivering a chemical bomb to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, this past March. The attempted bombing - which was thwarted by an alert security guard - would have been the terror network's first chemical bomb attack.
The videotape shows an unidentified man leaving a white van outside the consulate and being picked up by accomplices. Inside the van was a large blue vat containing a 200-gallon mixture of easily available chemicals meant to produce a powerful explosion and potentially fatal fumes.
Many experts now regard this to be al Qaeda's greatest threat - the homemade chemical bomb.
'This is no longer theory,' said Richard Clarke, who served as a top counterterrorism official under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. 'This is something al Qaeda always wanted to do. They wrote about it in their encyclopedia of jihad, they experimented with it in Afghanistan, and now in the last year we see evidence that the new al Qaeda is about the process of collecting these chemicals around the world.'
The videotape shows a fast, coordinated effort. After leaving the van parked outside the consulate, the driver is quickly picked up by accomplices in a car. But a consulate security guard approached the van and discovered its contents…”
US DEMANDS IRAN OPEN NUCLEAR FACILITIES TO INTERNATIONAL INSPECTION
September 11, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “A Top U.S. official says his country will demand that Iran come before the U.N. Security Council if it does not agree to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities. Iran's nuclear program was discussed at a two-day meeting of G-8 countries in Geneva in advance of next week's IAEA governing board meeting in Vienna.
A central focus of the closed door session was to try to get the Group of Eight countries to agree on a common position to stop Teheran from developing nuclear weapons. The United States and a trio of European Union countries, Britain, France and Germany, differ in their approach.
But, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton says over the past two days the U.S. and the EU-3 countries have tried to close the so-called tactical gap between them.
'I think I can say that we made progress in that regard here in Geneva. We have not completely closed the tactical gap,' he said. 'But, I think discussions will continue over the weekend and into next week and we will see what we are able to do. The overall objective of ensuring Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons capabilities is not an issue. All of us are agreed on that.'
The United States has staked out a hard-line position. Washington wants the IAEA to declare Iran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. This could force the issue before the U.N. Security Council. The European countries have adopted a softer approach. They want to give Teheran more time to comply with the treaty provisions before resorting to Security Council measures.
Mr. Bolton argues that Iran has been given enough time and has broken an agreement it made with the EU-3 to suspend its uranium enrichment program. He says bringing the case of Iran to the Security Council would not automatically trigger sanctions against the country…”
PA WARNS AGAINST REMOVING ARAFAT
September 10, 2004
WorldNetDaily.com reports: “With Israeli officials saying Yasser Arafat's expulsion from Ramallah is ‘closer then ever,’ the Palestinian Authority warned the Israeli government yesterday against carrying out any action that would harm the Palestinian leader.
Hassan Abu Lebda, the PA Cabinet secretary general, said any Israeli action against Arafat ‘would be a crazy step that would certainly lead to the collapse of the peace process in the Middle East.’
Lebda called on the representatives of the Quartet – the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – to meet in New York to discuss Israeli threats to deport Arafat.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned in recent remarks they will shortly address the ‘Arafat problem.’
‘There is no room for Arafat among us, and the time will come when we will remove him ... and that day is closer than ever,’ Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday.
Israel and the United States have tried to sideline Arafat, accusing him of fomenting violence in the nearly 4-year-old Palestinian intifada…”
EUROPE FACING AIDS EPIDEMIC
September 9, 2004
The EU Observer reports: “Europe's AIDS problem is worsening as the rate of new infections in some new member states are the highest in the World, the European Commission has warned.
The epidemic is not confined to the new member states. The proportion of newly reported HIV cases has also doubled in Western Europe since 1995.
Greater efforts are needed to prevent the spread of the disease, and EU member states and neighboring countries need to give HIV/AIDS ‘the attention it deserves’, declared David Byrne, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, yesterday (8 September).
People in poorer European countries should have access to affordable treatment. Also, better coordination of national strategies and projects to develop new medicines and vaccines are urgently needed, officials said.
HIV/AIDS is not just a problem for Africa and the developing world, stressed Commissioner Pavel Telička.
‘We have a serious epidemic beginning to resurface right here in parts of Europe. The EU must provide political leadership for the continent-wide action needed to avert this’, added Mr. Telička.
Later this month health ministers and experts across the EU and its eastern neighbors will gather in Lithuania to build a consensus on Europe-wide actions to combat the disease…”
BELGIUM CONSIDERS EUTHANASIA FOR CHILDREN
September 9, 2004
Reuters reports: “Belgian lawmakers belonging to Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's ruling Flemish Liberal party have introduced a bill seeking to expand the country's controversial euthanasia legislation to include minors.
Senators Jeannine Leduc and Paul Wille said in the bill that terminally ill children and teenagers had as much right to choose when they wanted to die as anyone else.
‘Their suffering is as great (and) the situation they face is as intolerable and inhumane,’ the senators' bill read on Wednesday.
A controversial law decriminalizing euthanasia came into force in Belgium in September 2002.
Patients wishing to end their lives must be conscious when the application is made and repeat their request for euthanasia. Their doctor must fill in a form and consult another physician before making a final decision.
Wille and Leduc now also want to include ‘assisted suicide’ in the current legislation as they feel patients often want to end their lives themselves…”
IRAN RECRUITS 'HUMAN SHIELD' FOR NUCLEAR REACTOR
September 9, 2004
The Jerusalem Post reports: “Iran is seeking volunteers to act as a massive human shield around Iran's nuclear reactor in case of a military attack against the facility.
About two weeks ago Iran announced its plans build more nuclear power plants with Russian help the in southern port city of Bushehr, ignoring US and Israeli concerns that by-products from the plants could be used to manufacture atomic bombs. The US and Israel strongly suspect Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, but Iran has consistently denied the charges.
The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign is organizing the human shield campaign to protect Bushehr reactor, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday.
According to a spokesman for the group, 25,000 people have already signed up to participate in the shield campaign, Army Radio reported.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami continues to insist that Iran's nuclear program is geared only toward the production of electricity. Iran's Nuclear Energy Council has decided the country needs to produce 7,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power plants by 2021 to meet Iran's increasing electricity demands.
Khatami issued a ‘guarantee’ not to seek atomic weapons, and warned Washington that it can't stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan without Teheran's help.
Iran began assembly of an ‘army of martyrs’ in June, recruited by The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign. In the first week of its June campaign, officials of the group said 10,000 young volunteers registered for ‘martyrdom operations’ against Israel and US forces in Iraq…”
U.S. ARMY WORKS ON LIQUID BODY ARMOR
September 8, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “The United States has been developing liquid body armor meant to facilitate the mobility of soldiers.
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has been developing liquid armor for Kevlar vests to ensure a light and flexible armor. Officials said the program fulfills a need for body armor that would not hinder a soldier from running or aiming his weapon.
The key to the research is a fluid called shear thickening fluid, or STF. Termed as the key component of liquid armor, STF is composed of hard particles suspended in a non-toxic liquid, polyethylene glycol.
STF also contains hard nano-particles of silica that comprise the other components of STF. The STF remains a liquid until a bullet or fragment strikes the vest. This would allow for vests that can protect the lower part of the body…”
IAEA PROBES NUCLEAR BLACK MARKET
September 8, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is making progress tracking down a global black market in nuclear technology that was run by a top Pakistani scientist. But the agency says it needs more information from foreign intermediaries and workshops that stored sensitive components.
U.S. and foreign officials say recent arrests and raids in South Africa, Germany and Switzerland mark a major breakthrough in unraveling the elaborate network, described by the IAEA as a ‘nuclear supermarket,’ that supplied Libya with its nuclear weapons program.
The network headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Quadeer Khan, known as the father of the Islamic atomic bomb, had supplied countries such as Libya, Iran and North Korea with nuclear technology since the mid-1980s. In February he was dismissed from his government post and confessed on national television to leaking nuclear secrets.
Last week an IAEA team was in South Africa helping authorities follow leads on German businessmen for alleged nuclear trafficking on the Khan network. Shahram Chubin, director of research at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, says the South African connection comes as no surprise.
‘If you've got a country like South Africa that had a fairly developed nuclear infrastructure and gave it up in the 1990s when it switched away from the apartheid regime, there must be quite a lot of expertise in the country both intellectual expertise and also equipment and technology,’ he said.
Mr. Chubin, who is Iranian, says after the end of apartheid, South Africa and Iran had good diplomatic relations that could have spilled over into sharing nuclear secrets.
‘It's countries like Iran and South Africa that have been under sanctions for a long time, have had experience of sanctions and they've also had experience of breaking sanctions, which means front companies, third parties,’ he said.
Details of the nuclear black market emerged last year when Tripoli revealed it had purchased weapons designs from A.Q. Khan for around $50 million…”
FAO CALLS FOR HELP IN WAR ON AFRICAN LOCUSTS
September 7, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “New waves of locust swarms are forming in West Africa, where international experts say substantial breeding is in progress. As the situation in the region continues to deteriorate, calls for international assistance have been stepped up in an effort to control the locust upsurge and disrupt the next breeding cycle in October.
The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization says extensive breeding has been under way in southern Mauritania, northern and central Senegal, the north of Mali, western Niger, and northern Burkina Faso.
FAO experts say they expect a large number of swarms to form in September. Locust forecasting officer Keith Cressman says the current situation developed as a result of abundant rainfall throughout West Africa in the summer of 2003. Now, he adds, hopper bands have been forming and maturing rapidly.
‘Those swarms that came out of north-west Africa at the beginning of the summer and they arrived in West Africa, they laid eggs,’ he says. ‘And it takes about two weeks for those eggs to hatch. Then those eggs hatched and the nymphal stage of the locusts, the ones without wings, they formed bands. So most of the countries now they have hopper bands.’
Since last October, FAO has been warning of the growing threat to crops, saying the desert locust is the single most destructive insect.
Affected countries have expressed extreme concern about the effect the locusts will have on their agriculture-based economies. Mauritania, Mr. Cressman says, is already in a fragile food security situation and cannot sustain additional crop damage…”
MILLIONS COULD BE FINGERPRINTED UNDER BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION PLANS
September 6, 2004
Canada.com reports: “Virtually every newcomer to Canada would be fingerprinted and photographed under ambitious federal security proposals, The Canadian Press has learned.
A newly obtained report shows the government is looking at the collection and to permanent residents and new citizens.
The personal identification effort could also extend to millions more who are born Canadian, possibly reviving the idea of a national identity card, indicates the report released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada under the Access to Information Act.
The prospect of a universal identity card for Canadians met a generally chilly reception when floated by the government last year.
One refugee advocate roundly denounced the latest set of plans as a move towards a ‘surveillance society.’
The report, Biometrics: CIC Business Requirements, was completed by a consultant last December under the direction of Citizenship and Immigration's enforcement branch.
It touts biometrics - measurable physical characteristics such as facial appearance, an iris scan or fingerprints - as a means of linking a document-holder to the right to travel or receive government services.
‘The use of biometrics is not a panacea for program issues, but promises to be a useful tool whose time has now arrived,’ the report says.
‘Biometric technologies potentially add an additional layer of security to a program, supporting the anti-terrorism agenda.’…”
Strong Earthquakes Rattle Western Japan
September 5th, 2004
TOKYO - Two strong earthquakes, one magnitude 6.9 and the second magnitude 7.3, rattled western Japan within hours of each other Sunday night, injuring 14 people, shaking buildings in Tokyo and triggering tsunami waves.
Damage and injuries appeared to be limited because both quakes were far off Japan's coast, and the region shaken most strongly by them was a sparsely populated rural area, Wakayama, 280 miles west of Tokyo.
But tall buildings in Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya shook, while buildings swayed in Tokyo.
The first quake, with a 6.9-magnitude quake, struck shortly after 7 p.m., centered 70 miles southeast off the Kii peninsula and 6 miles beneath the Pacific Ocean floor. Kyodo News reported that five were hurt in the first temblor.
The second temblor, of magnitude 7.3, struck about five hours later, centered about 80 miles southeast off the coast of Kochi prefecture (state) also 6 miles below the seabed. Public broadcaster NHK reported nine people were injured.
Typhoon Lashes Japan's Okinawa Island
September 5th, 2004
TOKYO - A typhoon billed as the strongest to hit
southern Japan in at least three decades lashed Okinawa island with heavy rains
and high winds Sunday and headed toward Japan's main islands. Fifteen people
were injured, a news report said.
Flights to and from Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, were canceled while trains and buses halted service as Typhoon Songda moved over the island, after abruptly veering from a course that would have taken it to Taiwan.
Television footage showed waves crashing over protective embankments and flooding the streets of coastal Okinawan towns. The Meteorological Agency warned of high tides and said that seas around southwestern Japan would get increasingly rough.
Public broadcaster NHK reported fifteen people were injured as the storm dumped heavy rains and unleashed powerful winds across the area.
By evening, the typhoon had passed over central Okinawa and was moving northwest, the agency said. It was expected to reach Kyushu, one of Japan's main islands, by Monday evening, the agency added.
Hurricane Ivan Threatens Barbados, Eastern Caribbean
September 5th, 2004
MIAMI (Reuters) - The eastern Caribbean island of Barbados was under a storm alert as powerful Hurricane Ivan raced across the Atlantic Ocean toward the Caribbean on Sunday.
Ivan, the ninth tropical cyclone of the Atlantic hurricane season and the fourth major hurricane, had 125-mph winds and could gain more strength, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) said.
t 5 p.m. EDT, the center of Ivan was 820 miles east-southeast of Barbados at latitude 10.4 north and longitude 47.7 west, the hurricane center said. It was moving to the west-northwest at about 21 mph.
The hurricane center's long-range forecast, which has a large margin of error, had the storm crossing the Lesser Antilles near Barbados on Tuesday afternoon and hitting Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, on Thursday.
The hurricane watch issued for Barbados warned residents they could see hurricane conditions within 36 hours. Forecasters said Ivan was the strongest cyclone to develop at such a low latitude in recorded Atlantic hurricane history.
Heavy Rains, Flooding Kill 55 in China's Sichuan
September 5th, 2004
BEIJING (Reuters) - Flooding and landslides set off by heavy rains have killed 55 people and left 52 missing in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, state media said on Monday.
Rain storms, described as the "most destructive in the province so far this year" had soaked Dazhou, Nanchong and Bazhong cities since Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The rains had sparked flash floods, landslides and mud and rock flows in the northeastern part of the province, destroying houses and crops, cutting off transportation to the region and trapping hundreds of people, Xinhua said, citing provincial disaster relief officials.
The death toll had risen sharply from reports early on Sunday, and Xinhua quoted a provincial meteorologist as saying the rains were expected to continue through Tuesday.
Downtown areas of Dazhou City, which suffered the most serious damage in the rainstorm, have been 'isolated' as the flood caused cave-ins on urban roads and destroyed highways linking the city with the outside world," Xinhua reported.
Slow-Moving Frances Cuts Power in Florida
FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Potent but slow-moving Hurricane Frances snapped power lines and whipped the Atlantic coast with winds over 90 mph Saturday, knocking out electricity for more than 450,000 Floridians and forcing millions to endure another day of waiting and worrying.
The wind uprooted trees and peeled off roofs; coastal waters resembled a churning hot tub. The storm's slow-motion assault — Frances crawled toward Florida at just 5 mph before stalling over warm water — came more than a day later than predicted. The eye of the storm wasn't expected to hit east-central Florida until early Sunday.
En route, Frances shattered windows, toppled power lines and flooded neighborhoods in the Bahamas, driving thousands from their homes. The Freeport airport was partially submerged in water.
Frances' arrival came three weeks after Hurricane Charley killed 27 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in southwestern Florida. For some Floridians, the second storm couldn't arrive soon enough. I just want it to be quick. Just get it over with," said Woodeline Jadis, 20, tired of waiting at a shelter in Orlando.
The storm's leading edge reached the Florida coast early Saturday, and about 300 miles of coastline remained under a hurricane warning. Frances was so big that virtually the entire state feared damage from wind and the more than foot of rain that forecasters said was possible.
"This is going to be a tough ride for us over the next few days," Gov. Jeb Bush said. The largest evacuation in state history, with 2.8 million residents ordered inland, sent 70,000 residents and tourists into shelters. The storm shut down much of Florida, including airports and amusement parks, at the start of the usually busy Labor Day weekend.
EU CRITICIZES ISRAELI THREATS AGAINST SYRIA
September 4, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has criticized an Israeli threat against Syria following Palestinian suicide bombings Tuesday that killed 16 people.
Mr. Solana said in Valkenburg, Netherlands, Friday he does not think it’s helpful to start talking about attacking other countries. He said the situation in the Middle East is complicated enough already.
Mr. Solana was responding to remarks by Israeli officials that they would hold Syria responsible for attacks in Israel by the militant group Hamas.
Hamas claimed to have carried out Tuesday's suicide bombings, and has offices in Syria…”
RUSSIA'S PRESIDENT VOWS STRONGER SECURITY IN WAKE OF DEADLY HOSTAGE CRISIS
September 4, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “Russian President Vladimir Putin is promising to ‘create a much more effective system of security’ following a school hostage crisis that left more than 300 people dead.
In a nationally televised address Saturday Mr. Putin said Russia had shown an unacceptable ‘weakness’ because it did not ‘understand the complexity and danger’ facing the country and the world from terrorism. He is also vowing to tighten control in the Northern Caucus, which includes the troubled Chechnya region.
Authorities say 322 people were killed when troops stormed the school after explosions went off inside the gymnasium. Nearly half of the dead were children. Among the dead are 27 attackers, both Chechens and Arabs. More than 700 others were injured.
The international police agency Interpol is offering to assist Russia to determine if the hostage takers had any links to international terrorist groups...”
MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS FROM 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY
September 2, 2004
NewScientist.com reports: “In February 2003, astronomers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) pointed the massive radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, at around 200 sections of the sky.
The same telescope had previously detected unexplained radio signals at least twice from each of these regions, and the astronomers were trying to reconfirm the findings. The team has now finished analyzing the data, and all the signals seem to have disappeared. Except one, which has got stronger.
This radio signal, now seen on three separate occasions, is an enigma. It could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon. Or it could be something much more mundane, maybe an artifact of the telescope itself.
But it also happens to be the best candidate yet for a contact by intelligent aliens in the nearly six-year history of the SETI@home project, which uses programs running as screensavers on millions of personal computers worldwide to sift through signals picked up by the Arecibo telescope.
‘It’s the most interesting signal from SETI@home,’ says Dan Werthimer, a radio astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and the chief scientist for SETI@home. ‘We’re not jumping up and down, but we are continuing to observe it.’
Named SHGb02+14a, the signal has a frequency of about 1420 megahertz. This happens to be one of the main frequencies at which hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, readily absorbs and emits energy.
Some astronomers have argued that extraterrestrials trying to advertise their presence would be likely to transmit at this frequency, and SETI researchers conventionally scan this part of the radio spectrum.
SHGb02+14a seems to be coming from a point between the constellations Pisces and Aries, where there is no obvious star or planetary system within 1000 light years. And the transmission is very weak.
‘We are looking for something that screams out ‘artificial’,’ says UCB researcher Eric Korpela, who completed the analysis of the signal in April. ‘This just doesn’t do that, but it could be because it is distant.’…”
ISRAEL TO STRIKE SYRIA?
September 2, 2004
WorldNetDaily.com reports: “Israeli leaders warned Syria yesterday that Damascus bears the blame for a double suicide bombing by Hamas militants because it harbors the group's leadership, and also hinted at possible retaliation and increased targeting of Hamas leaders.
In an initial response to Tuesday's attack that killed 16 people in a southern Israeli city, Israeli troops blew up the home of one of the bombers and isolated the West Bank city of Hebron, where the attackers lived.
But several Israeli officials told WorldNetDaily the Jewish state must send a strong message to Syria, which openly allows Khalid Meshel, the overall Hamas leader, to operate from Damascus.
‘The fact that Hamas is operating from Syria will not grant it immunity,’ said Sharon spokesperson Raanan Gissin.
The Israeli army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said those who support terrorism ‘cannot sleep quietly at night,’ mentioning Palestinian leaders, Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, Syria and Iran.
Sharon added his own implied threat: ‘Israel's struggle against terrorism will continue unabated. We will apparently need to decide on additional steps to stop terrorism.’…”
Hundreds Held in Russian School; 8 Killed
September 1st, 2004
BESLAN, Russia - Militants wearing suicide-bomb belts seized a southern Russian school in a region bordering Chechnya (news - web sites) on Wednesday, taking hundreds of hostages — many of them children — and threatening to blow up the building if police storm it. As least two people have been reported killed, including a school parent.
Hours into the desperate standoff, security officials said they had made brief contact with the hostage-takers. Russian special forces wearing camouflage and carrying heavy-caliber machine guns surrounded Middle School No. 1. About 1,000 people, mostly parents, were massed the three-story building in the town of Beslan, demanding information and accusing the government of failing to protect their children.
Kazbek
Dzantiyev, head of the North Ossetia region's Interior Ministry, said that the
hostages have threatened "for every destroyed fighter, they will kill 50
children and for every injured fighter — 20 (children)," the ITAR-Tass
news agency reported.
At one point, a girl wearing a floral print dress and a red bow in her hair fled the school, her hand held by a flak-jacketed soldier. An older woman followed them. Ruslan Ayamov, spokesman for North Ossetia's Interior Ministry told The Associated Press that 12 children and one adult managed to escape after hiding in the building's boiler room.
The attack was the latest blamed on secessionist Chechen rebels, coming a day after a suicide bomber killed nine people in Moscow and a week after near-simultaneous explosions blamed on terrorists caused two Russian planes to crash, killing all 90 people on board. The surge in violence was apparently timed around last Sunday's Chechen presidential election.
"In essence, war has been declared on us, where the enemy is unseen and there is no front," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
Florida Calls for Hurricane Evacuations
September 1st, 2004
MIAMI - Hundreds of thousands of people were told Wednesday to get ready to evacuate as powerful Hurricane Frances crept closer to Florida just weeks after Hurricane Charley's rampage. It would be the worst double hurricane strike on one state in at least a century.
Generators were hefted off store shelves, along with water, canned goods and other emergency supplies as forecasters warned the core of the Category 4 storm with 140-mph top sustained winds was due along Florida's Atlantic coast late Friday or early Saturday. Charley left billions of dollars in damage and 27 people dead when it swept across the peninsula Aug. 13.
"I can't emphasize enough how powerful this is. If there's something out there that's going to weaken it, we haven't seen it," National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) director Max Mayfield said.
About 300,000 residents in coastal areas of Palm Beach County were told to evacuate starting 2 p.m. Thursday.
In Rockledge, about 45 miles southeast of Orlando, Brevard County told at least 50,000 residents to start evacuating mobile homes and barrier islands Thursday afternoon. In Stuart about 85 miles south, Martin County planned to urge up to 7,500 residents to evacuate low-lying areas starting at noon Thursday. More evacuation orders along Florida's east coast were likely.
U.N.: Increase Troops for Sudan Now
September 1st, 2004
(AP) - A U.N. report called Wednesday for a quick increase in the international
monitoring force in Sudan, saying the government has not stopped attacks against
civilians or disarmed marauding militias. The report to the U.N. Security
Council by Secretary-General Kofi Annan cited "some progress" by the
government and did not mention or recommend sanctions. More
...
At least 16 people have been killed in suicide bombings on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, police and medical sources say.
More than 80 people are reported to have been injured, some of them seriously, in the blasts.Palestinian militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for the almost simultaneous attacks. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called an emergency security cabinet meeting to plan Israel's response. Israeli troops have also surrounded the home in the West Bank town of Hebron of one of the bombers named in the Hamas statement.
'Maximum effect'
The twin bombings are the first major suicide attacks in Israel since March, when 10 people died in the southern port of Ashdod. The two buses were 100 metres (yards) apart when the blasts occurred, setting one on fire.
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The struggle against terror will be pursued to the fullest extent
Ariel Sharon
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Yaacov Cohen, the driver of the second bus to explode, who escaped with minor injuries, said: "I was at the junction and suddenly I heard a huge blast and saw smoke everywhere.
"I realised it was an explosion on a bus near me, so I stopped my bus and opened all the doors thinking, 'We should just flee'. Suddenly there was another blast inside my bus.
"When I opened the doors, a lot of people managed to get out... It's difficult to describe what I saw outside." Ambulance worker Avi Zohar told the BBC that the buses were full of parents and children shopping for educational items on the final day of the school holidays.
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Correspondents say the attacks were timed for maximum effect. Nir Hasson of Haaretz newspaper described a scene of horror. "This is the first terror attack on buses in Beersheba," he told BBC World TV. "People here are in shock." Soon after the two explosions, Israel radio and television reported that there had been a third blast in Beersheba, but this was later found to have been a false alarm.
The reported death toll does not include suicide bombers.
Defiant statement
In a leaflet issued in Hebron, the closest Palestinian city to Beersheba, Hamas said it was avenging the assassinations of two of its leaders earlier this year. Addressing Prime Minister Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, it said: "You are wrong if you think the assassination of our leaders is going to damage our determination to fight." Mr Sharon responded to the attacks by vowing: "The struggle against terror will be pursued to the fullest extent." Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said: "The Palestinian Authority condemns any attacks that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinian." He also appealed to the international backers of the stalled roadmap peace plan for the region "to intervene immediately" to bring peace to the region.
Hanan Ashrawi, a former Palestinian minister and a human rights activist told the Associated Press: "It is regrettable that these attacks are going on and it is time to stop the tragic loss of life on both sides." "The fact that occupation is still on going, the fact that Palestinians are not being given any way out, that there is increased and escalated violence by the Israeli occupation. All this leads to further escalation and violence."
Security barrier
Suicide bombers have killed more than 400 people in Israel since the start of the of the Palestinian uprising nearly four years ago. The Israeli authorities say the construction of a security barrier in the West Bank, and repeated raids against suspected militants, have helped to prevent attacks in recent months. Israeli officials noted that construction of the barrier had not yet reached Hebron.
Before the blasts, the Israeli army reported that troops had captured a suicide bomber at a Gaza Strip checkpoint before he could detonate an explosives belt hidden beneath his clothing. Tuesday also saw Mr Sharon set out a timetable for steps toward pulling 7,000 Jewish settlers out of Gaza, despite opposition in his Likud party and from religious nationalists, who say it would reward "Palestinian terrorism"
Gaston Floods Part of Va., Kills 5 People
August 31st, 2004
RICHMOND, Va. - An area of about 20 blocks of downtown Richmond was roped off and was declared uninhabitable Tuesday after the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston flooded the city and other parts of central Virginia with a foot or more of rain. At least five people were killed.
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The area included most of the city's historic
and low-lying Shockoe Bottom area, known for bars and restaurants.
Elsewhere, Hurricane Frances grew to a Category
4 storm with 140 mph wind Tuesday as it headed past Puerto Rico on a course that
could bring it ashore in hard-hit Florida or somewhere else in the Southeast
this weekend, the National Hurricane Center (news
- web
sites) said. A hurricane warning was issued for the southeastern Bahamas.
A brick building of at least two stories had collapsed in the trendy Shockoe Bottom area, and several dozen buildings had extensive water damage after the rain that fell Monday afternoon and evening flooded the area as much as 10 feet deep, Mayor Rudolph McCollum said Tuesday. In places, rushing water floated cars and trucks and smashed them into buildings.
City officials said the damage would easily be in the millions of dollars but said it was too early to provide an estimate.
Gov. Mark R. Warner declared a state of emergency, making state resources available and putting the National Guard on standby, and toured the area on Tuesday.
"The devastation to a lot of the businesses in Shockoe Bottom is overwhelming," Warner said at a news conference.
About half of the historic neighborhood was flooded.
Most of the buildings in the low-lying district are two- and three-story brick, primarily warehouses and other commercial structures converted to restaurants, nightclubs and apartments. A few buildings date from before the Civil War. A flood wall was built in the 1990s to protect Shockoe Bottom from the James River, but the river was not a major factor in Monday's flooding.
One woman who had to be rescued from an apartment by boat, Luissa Alba, said she saw someone hanging from a nearby railroad trestle to escape the rising water and a woman holding a child in each arm who was screaming for help from atop a car stalled in the water.
Alba, 28, said she couldn't reach a 911 dispatcher on her cell phone, adding: "We basically had to call friends who called 911 for us." She didn't know what happened to the people, but saw rescuers heading toward the woman on the car.
More than 61,000 customers of Dominion Virginia Power still had no electricity Tuesday morning. Many roads were still closed by high water.
Gaston surprised meteorologists, who had expected the storm to move through more quickly as it came north from the Carolinas and predicted no more than 4 inches of rain. Downtown Richmond got up to 12 inches of rain Monday afternoon and evening and suburban King William County measured 14, the National Weather Service (news - web sites) said.
Warner said five people died. In nearby Chesterfield County, public affairs officer Dave Goode said police and firefighters rescued about 40 people during the night.
Matthew Marsili was trying to drive home through the flooded streets Monday evening when "all of this water came rushing down the hill all at once. ... It half-submerged a bus in the middle of the intersection that was filled with people and cars started floating down the road."
As the tattered remains of Gaston headed out to sea off the coast of New Jersey, emergency officials and meteorologists were looking toward the western Atlantic, where Hurricane Frances was roaring toward the Bahamas.
Hurricane forecasters said the course of Frances remained too difficult to determine, since it was at least five days from the U.S. mainland. Forecasts put Frances anywhere from Cuba to Florida to Georgia or the Carolinas by the end of the week. Hurricane Charley cut a devastating path across Florida less than three weeks ago.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Frances was centered about 140 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was moving west at about 16 mph, the hurricane center said. It was expected to turn gradually toward the west-northwest. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for parts of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands.
With rain from hurricanes Alex and Charley and the remnants of Bonnie — all during August — rainfall in parts of the Southeast already is several inches above normal for the month.
"If you throw another hurricane into the mix, there could be a lot of problems," said Mike Strickler, a National Weather Service forecaster in Raleigh, N.C.
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
And You Thought the Mark Wasn't Real?
BIOMETRICS - GREAT HOPE FOR WORLD SECURITY OR TRIUMPH FOR BIG BROTHER?
The Guardian Unlimited reports: “British police will almost certainly be given access in the near future to US intelligence databases containing DNA samples, fingerprints and digital images of thousands of foreign nationals seized around the world by the US as terror suspects.
As the war on terror increasingly comes to rely on biometric technology - the use of physical characteristics unique to individuals such as iris pattern, DNA and fingerprints to verify identify - western police and intelligence agencies are drawing up plans for sophisticated biometric databases which would allow them to share sensitive information.
‘The only way to trace a terrorist is through biometrics,’ Mike Kirkpatrick, assistant director of the FBI's criminal justice services division, told a conference for European firms selling biometric security measures yesterday. ‘[Traditional] passports are pretty damn meaningless.’
The FBI, which has more than 75m fingerprints on its criminal and civil computer records, is adding biometric details from suspects detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere…
Last night, civil liberties campaigners voiced concerns about governments sharing biometric data through international databases. ‘There is now a total obsession with this technology as a way of combating anything and everything and it's a fallacy,’ said Barry Hugill of Liberty. ‘Once you begin to compile massive databases it's a matter of common sense that you are going to get the most horrendous mix-ups, with the wrong people being accused and the wrong information being shared around the world.’
British law enforcement and intelligence agencies believe that access to the US databases will streamline international cooperation between police forces and make it much harder for terror suspects known to one country to enter another. The data would be used mainly to vet people traveling to the UK, either at the point where they apply for visas or when they reach a British airport or port…”
Some News Snippets Driven by JVI Prophecy News - Jack Van Impe Ministries
