News and Prophecy Staff

Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay (a land-locked nation) have backed Argentina’s recent ban of boats carrying the Falkland flag from docking in their ports.  And Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner “claimed Britain was ready to use its military to steal natural resources ‘anywhere, anyhow.’”

Typhoon Washi swept through the Philippines two weeks ago.  Flash flooding devastated a southern region and two cities, killing over 1,100 people.  According to one official, “Mortuaries have been unable to cope and authorities have started digging mass graves to bury victims” (Reuters, December 20, 2011).  Tens of thousands of displaced persons are crowded into evacuation facilities with sanitation problems and little water.  Over 330,000 people are now unable to return to their homes (AFP, December 24, 2011).

For thousands of years, mankind has known the universe is full of stars.  When the Hubble space-telescope was launched in 1990, scientists began to number the stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone at more than 100 billion.  But the assumption, based on Hubble data, was that there were very few planets outside our own solar system. Now, NASA’s new and more powerful Kepler space-telescope is sending back evidence of planets outside our solar system—thousands of them.

EU Vice President Neelie Kroes invited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to Brussels “to advise on how to provide ongoing support to Internet users, bloggers and cyber-activists living under authoritarian regimes.”  He has been living in the U.S. for the last several months in a type of self-imposed exile, while working with a major political think tank.

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary near Dover, Delaware, handles the bodies of military personnel killed in overseas operations.  A recent investigation revealed that the Air Force dumped partially cremated remains of 274 personnel into a nearby landfill.  This apparently happened even after families had asked the Air Force to handle their dead loved ones with respect.