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On Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis hosted an unprecedented “prayer meeting” with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres (CNN, June 9, 2014).
A rapidly spreading viral disease has erupted in the sunny islands of the Caribbean. Victims of the chikungunya disease “suffer searing headaches, a burning fever and so much pain in their joints they can barely walk or use their hands. It’s like having a terrible flu combined with an abrupt case of arthritis.
Political struggles are threatening the internal cohesion of the European Union. Following the elections for the European Parliament, British Prime Minister David Cameron warned, “his country could leave the European Union if Luxembourg’s former premier Jean-Claude Juncker became the next European Commission president” (Agence-France Presse, May 31, 2014)....
“A treaty to launch the Eurasian Economic Union spanning Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus has been signed by the countries’ presidents in the Kazakh capital. The bloc will come into being next January” (Deutsche Welle, May 29, 2014). “Armenia and Kyrgyzstan have said that they want to join the union later. The Eurasian Economic Union will base its executive body...
"Almost six weeks after nearly 300 girls were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Nigerian defense chief believes the girls have been located. Despite this breakthrough, the Nigerian government seems reluctant to use military force to free the girls" (Yahoo.com, May 26, 2014). "Boko Haram has attempted to use the girls as leverage for a...
This week in a visit to Israel and the West Bank, "Pope Francis inserted himself directly into the collapsed Middle East peace process… issuing an invitation to host the Israeli and Palestinian presidents for a prayer summit meeting at his apartment in the Vatican, in an overture that has again underscored the broad ambitions of his papacy" (New York Times, May...
Long ago the prophet Daniel foresaw an end-time European empire composed of ten kingdoms or nations and represented by feet of "iron and clay" (Daniel 2:41-43). The mixture of "iron and clay" is symbolic of a union of nations that do not naturally adhere to each other. This past week’s parliamentary elections reflected the iron and clay nature of the European...
"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...
A school headmaster commented recently in a major British paper that "The state education system is producing a generation of 'amoral' children who fail to understand the difference between right and wrong" (Telegraph, May 15, 2014). With the major emphasis on testing and "the basics," schools are failing to equip student with the "moral compass they need for...
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).