News and Prophecy Staff

“Armenia said Tuesday it has decided to join a customs union led by Russia as well as the proposed Eurasian Economic Union strongly promoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Armenia will become the fourth member of the customs block made up of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan” (Wall Street Journal, September 3, 2013). President Putin envisions a Eurasian economic bloc to counter the European Union, and he is taking all necessary measures to accomplish his dream.

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the latest EU leader to raise the prospect of shifting powers from Brussels back to national governments” (EU Observer, August 15, 2013). The EU is currently governed by non-elected officials in Brussels; however, more voices are calling for restructuring to create a real federal Europe.

The “Christian” nation of Jamaica claims to have the highest ratio of churches to people of any nation on earth (BBC, August 12, 2013). Since colonial times, Obeah (Jamaica’s version of voodoo) has been illegal and punishable by “flogging, imprisonment, among other penalties” (ibid.). However, the Jamaican government recently abolished these punishments and many are calling for the full decriminalization of Obeah (ibid.).

Two and a half years after a tsunami severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant outside Tokyo, the plant is leaking a large amount of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Faulty pipes and leaking basements under the affected reactors are leaking at the rate of 300 metric tons per day—75% of what is being stored (Bloomberg, August 26, 2013).

Allegations that the Assad regime used biological weapons against its own people are prompting Western powers to consider military intervention in Syria in order to protect the lives of innocent civilians (The Telegraph, August 25, 2013). France and the U.K.