News

"Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in western Australia is the oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago… They used a technique known as atom-probe tomography that was able to identify individual atoms of lead in the crystal and determine their mass, and confirmed that the zircon was indeed 4.4 billion years old" (Reuters, February 23, 2014).

Following World War II, Japan's constitution was developed to prevent future military conquests by the Japanese. However, recent provocations by China and North Korea have caused the Japanese to reconsider the 70-year-old ban on a military (Reuters, May 15, 2014).

A recent report “recounting a litany of near-misses in which nuclear weapons came close to being launched by mistake concludes that the risk of potentially catastrophic accidents is higher than previously thought and appears to be rising” (The Guardian, April 29, 2014).

The European Union is pushing for a financial transaction tax (FTT) and Britain is pushing back (BBC, April 30, 2014). Of particular interest to students of Bible prophecy is that 11 of 27 EU member states are going ahead with the FTT, even though the particulars have yet to be decided upon. The eleven nations are: “Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia” (ibid.).