News and Prophecy Staff

“With three police officers killed in separate instances in two months, and calls from some Illinois lawmakers for the National Guard to patrol its most violent streets, Chicago once again finds itself under growing pressure to rein in crime.” Chicago is well on the way to meeting last year’s statistic of almost 500 murders—mostly gang-related.

On the eve of peace talks between Palestinian and Israeli leaders and President Obama, Hamas gunned down two men and two women (one pregnant) in a vehicle in the Gaza Strip. Three thousand people subsequently turned out to celebrate this tragedy as a “heroic operation.”

For decades, U.S. presidents have tried to broker peace between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land, only to find that peace fractured quickly afterwards. Hamas likely initiated this massacre in order to halt the peace talks in Washington, because they oppose the current Palestinian leader, Mr. Abbas.

So far this year, more than 230 million people have been affected by flooding in China—that is equal to two thirds of the U.S. population or nearly half of Europe’s population! Also, more than 3,000 people have died in the flooding, resulting in $50 billion dollars in damage. The August floods alone claimed nearly 1,500 lives (ChinaDaily.com, September 1, 2010).

“Almost half a million new cases of [sexually transmitted] infection were diagnosed in Britain last year. Among women, two-thirds were aged between 15 and 24.”

According to at least one researcher, male circumcision rates in the U.S. dropped from 56% in 2006 to less than 33% at the end of 2009—that is almost a 50% drop in just three years. In a recent interview, pediatric bioethicist Dr.