News and Prophecy Staff

“Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday outlined his most tangible initiative yet to try to revive Christianity, creating a Vatican office for re-evangelizing Europe and other traditionally Christian regions where the faith is falling by the wayside.

Tornados are most common in the American mid-west—in an area known as “tornado alley.” Yet, last week, four tornados touched down in the mountains of northern Arizona, bringing the destructive power of 100-mile-per-hour winds.

Normally, Arizona averages four tornados per year. “‘The hammering that northern Arizona is getting right now is exceptional,’ said National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Waters in Phoenix. ‘It’s not uncommon this time of year to have one or two tornado reports or a warning, but this is quite an outbreak’” (Associated Press, October 7, 2010).

Last Autumn, a British newspaper reported, “In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning—along with China, Russia, Japan and France—to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

In an attempt to put Christ back into Easter, the Church of England plans to sell chocolate Easter eggs that mention Christ on the packaging. Church leaders hope the packaging will remind people of the alleged connection between Christ and Easter and promote the “real” meaning of Easter.

In the past several weeks, extensive flooding has inundated the U.S.A.’s East Coast and upper Mid-West, Jamaica, Barbados and Cuba, parts of Europe, the Southeast Asian nations of Indonesia and Viet Nam, and the Chinese island of Hainan.  As of Wednesday morning, the death toll across Asia had reached 110, with tens of thousands displaced, and bridges and homes destroyed due to the flooding (Associated Press, October 6, 2010).  In Jamaica, 11 people died and thousands went without power and water for several days (Canadian Press, October 3, 2010).