Note From MJB Editor to all Readers: I think that you will all find this particular October Edition of MJB World Prophecy News Especially interesting as Several Major Prophetic events have taken place in the past few weeks.. …. Until His Return… M.J. Ballester

The London Telegraph October 5, 1999 reported: "More than half the population of East Timor is still unaccounted for, according to the United Nations. Out of a population of 850,000, up to 250,000 were in camps in West Timor after being forcibly deported and 100,000 had returned to key urban areas, largely Dili and Baucau. The whereabouts of the remaining 500,000 is uncertain. ‘We are looking for them,’ said Ross Mountain, head of the UN's humanitarian program. ‘Of course we are worried.’ Assessments going on across the province continued to provide an alarming picture of massive destruction and deserted towns and villages. In the western town of Balibo, where 90 per cent of homes have been destroyed, the single remaining resident was found to be a woman of 94 whose only companions were her chickens and goats until Interfet peacekeeping troops arrived this week. The issue of the missing population emphasizes that Interfet's mission to provide security on the ground has stalled, mainly because of insufficient manpower. Only when there is security would the displaced people return to their homes..."

AMERICAN ANTI-MISSILE ‘STAR WARS’ TEST SUCCESSFUL

The London Times October 4, 1999 reported: "America has successfully intercepted and shot down one of its own missiles, the Pentagon said yesterday, in the first test of a prototype weapon that may be the cornerstone of a future ‘Star Wars’ missile defence system of the sort envisaged by President Reagan. The mock enemy warhead, an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile fired from California on Saturday night, was destroyed over the Pacific Ocean by a ‘kill vehicle’ launched about 20 minutes later from the Marshall Islands, more than 4,000 miles away, officials said. ‘This "hit-to-kill" intercept demonstrates that a warhead carrying a weapon of mass destruction - nuclear, chemical or biological - will be totally destroyed and neutralized,’ the National Missile Defense Program reported. The shoot-down was carried out 140 miles above the ocean, using a device carried by a rocket and similar in appearance to a television camera. ‘There was heavy cloud cover, but the flash from the collision was very bright,’ a military spokesman said. Despite the successful test, sceptics still question the creation of an expensive missile shield that could disrupt relations with Russia and China. Moscow has voiced concern that a full missile defense system could undermine nuclear deterrence..."

Associated Press October 3, 1999 reported today: "Another war between India and Pakistan could include a nuclear exchange, former U.S. defense secretary William Perry said Saturday at an arms control symposium. ‘The losing side might be tempted to use nuclear weapons in a desperate attempt to save the day,’ Perry said. Speaking in a panel discussion that ended a two-day Nobel Symposium called ‘A future arms control agenda,’' Perry said he thinks it's likely that more nations will obtain nuclear weapons. ‘Last year's India test ruptured the fragile barrier of the (Non Proliferation Treaty). Not surprisingly, Pakistan quickly followed suit, and my expectation is that we will see Iran, Iraq and possibly Syria go nuclear as well,’ he said. Francesco Calogero of Italy, a former executive of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, winner of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, said the availability of highly enriched uranium -- the kind used in nuclear weapons -- is particularly worrisome. <B<‘I b people.’>..."

BBC October 3, 1999 reported today: "The United States and Russia have signed a deal to tighten controls on nuclear materials and improve safety at Soviet-era atomic power stations. As part of a raft of measures, American experts will conduct Y2K bug tests to try to protect Russia's nuclear industry from a potential disaster in the new millennium. The package also includes a new crisis centre at the Russian Nuclear Power Ministry, which was unveiled at the signing by US Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson, and his Russian counterpart, Yevgeny Adamov. Both men said the nuclear accident in Japan on Thursday demonstrated how useful co-operation could be. American technicians will go to Russia in November to ensure that key facilities, including reactors at nuclear power plants and the national electricity grid, will be ready for the new millennium. Russia is widely perceived as being one of the countries least prepared for Y2K computer failures..."

The International Herald Tribune October 2, 1999 reported today: "Japanese officials declared the danger from the nation's worst nuclear accident to be over on Friday, but the search for blame is likely to deepen public suspicion about the nation's nuclear industry. Monitors showed that radiation levels around the uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Tokyo, had returned to normal, and at midafternoon officials said more than 300,000 people who had been urged to stay indoors could safely move about. The radiation stopped after eight daring forays by teams of plant workers early Friday finally succeeded in breaking a pipe outside the plant and draining water that had accelerated the nuclear fission of 16 kilograms (35 pounds) of uranium that workers had mistakenly poured together..."

The Drudge Report October 2, 1999 reported today: "The Defense Department is preparing for a first test of the interceptor warhead of the planned National Missile Defense system. With the fiery liftoff of a missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday night, the nation's missile defense program may take a large step toward becoming reality. Exact details of the planned launch are classified, but it will occur between 7 and 11 p.m. PST, it has been learned. It will be the first test flight on hardware that could begin shielding the continental United States from a missile attack by 2005. The Defense Department is examining whether a 141-pound 'kill vehicle' can locate and smash a 'warhead' at a collision speed of 17,000 miles per hour. The White House will decide next summer whether to deploy an initial defensive system with 20 missiles at a site in Alaska. That decision will be based on three test shots, two of which must be successful..."

BBC October 1, 1999 reported: "On December 31, 1999, at the stroke of midnight local time a golden pyramid about 9m (30 feet) high will be placed on the missing peak of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, flooding the surrounding area with golden rays to signal the birth of the first day of 2000. Egypt has unveiled plans to usher in the new millennium with a 12 hour extravaganza at the foot of the Pyramids which is being described as the biggest cultural celebration ever to be held in the country. The event will feature an electronic opera especially composed by the French musician Jean Michel Jarre, with laser lights, fireworks, dances, and blend of oriental and western music. The three-act performance - with dramatic high points at sunset, midnight and sunrise - will follow the theme of ‘Twelve Dreams of the Sun,’ central to ancient Egyptian mythology. Mr Jarre said his special effects would give the illusion that the Pyramids were the ‘doors through which the sun passes’. The minister said that 60 countries have bought television rights. A live audience of around 50,000 people is expected to attend the event on the desert plateau of Giza, part of greater Cairo, with the price of tickets ranging from $150 to $400." 

Associated Press September 30, 1999 reported today: "A major leak at a uranium-processing plant in northeastern Japan today sent radiation levels skyrocketing. Three workers were hospitalized -- two in critical condition -- and 11 others were contaminated. A team was to begin removing water from the cooling equipment around the tank to suppress further nuclear fission, Science and Technology Agency official Eiichiro Watanabe said. 'There is no mistake in thinking the nuclear fission is going on,' said Ibaraki prefectural (state) official Masahiro Mizuno. Nuclear fission happens when neutrons hit uranium, causing atoms to split and thus releasing huge amounts of energy. It is the principle behind the atomic bomb. Water stimulates the neutrons' activity, spurring along the reaction. Hiromu Nonaka, the top government spokesman, called the accident 'unprecedented,' and officials said no previous Japanese accident had left workers so seriously injured. About 150 people were evacuated from the area around the plant in the town of Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo. More than 310,000 people were ordered not to leave their homes and officials shut down schools and train service in the region. 'A major accident resulting in a radioactive leak has happened. We apologize from the bottom of our hearts,' said JCO President Koji Kitani, bowing deeply at a news conference in Tokyo. In Washington, President Clinton expressed deep concern and said the United States 'will do whatever we possibly can that will be helpful to them.' 'This is going to be a very hard day for the people of Japan,' he added..."

Religion News Today September 29, 1999 reported: "The world's foremost secular humanists are calling for a world government. The International Academy of Humanism's Humanist Manifesto 2000, signed by more than 100 academics and intellectuals, calls for the formation of a World Parliament to regulate environmental, economic, and population concerns, Religion News Service said. It is the fifth such declaration issued by humanists since 1933...The World Parliament should have more power than the United Nations, the group said. National boundaries and cultural and religious differences should slowly be eliminated, it said. New agencies are needed to oversee and regulate worldwide environmental conditions, transnational taxation to distribute more money to poorer nations, and population control, it said...The document criticizes religious beliefs. 'Theological moral doctrines often reflect inherited, prescientific conceptions of nature and human nature,' and are outdated, it said. 'We do not deny that religionists have done much good; what we deny is that religious piety is the sole guarantee of moral virtue.' Document signers include philosopher Paul Kurtz, entertainer Steve Allen, anthropologist Paul Leakey, former California Sen. Alan Cranston, and nine Nobel laureates."

Clinton Tilt On Kosovo Worries Europeans

International Herald Tribune October 1, 1999 (NOVGOROD, Russia) Reported: International Herald Tribune reported: Both the European allies and Russia are alarmed by signs of readiness in the Clinton administration to envisage Kosovo as an independent ethnic Albanian state - a development that critics say could have a disastrous domino effect in the Balkans.

U.S. policymakers insist that a decision about the province's ultimate political status is a long way off, but critics assert that the Clinton administration has started accommodating a blueprint long nurtured by leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army to make Kosovo the core of a greater Albania.

This dream among Albanian nationalists has become a nightmare for European governments, which are frightened by ethnic Albanian nationalism and fearful that independence for Kosovo would lead quickly to the breakup of neighboring states. They fear this would trigger fresh refugee flows and perhaps wider conflict in the Balkans.

The South China Morning Post September 23, 1999 reported today: "Exiled Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden has sent US$30 million to two prominent Chechen guerilla leaders to finance an Islamic insurgency in southern Russia, a senior security official said yesterday. Russian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said bin Laden recently made the transfer to Shamil Basayev and his Jordanian deputy, Khattab, to help recruit men and purchase weapons for a new invasion of Dagestan and two other neighbouring Russian republics. ‘Their campaign is just starting and everything lies ahead,’ Mr Zubov said. Russian intelligence reports indicated Chechnya-based guerillas planned to launch military operations in the ethnically mixed North Ossetia and Ingushetia republics, Mr Zubov said. He said forces loyal to Basayev and Khattab were currently 5,000-7,000 strong and included mercenaries from Yugoslavia, Turkey and Afghanistan..."

USA Today September 23, 1999 reported: "South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan carried their hostilities to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, accusing each other of pushing the fragile region toward a bloody conflict. Warning of nuclear ‘doomsday’ in South Asia, Pakistan urged world leaders and the United Nations to stop India from developing an arsenal of atomic weapons. Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said the world should not believe India's promise not to be the first of the two to use atomic weapons. Aziz proposed a six-point program to get India to reduce its number of nuclear weapons. But Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh blamed Pakistan for rising tensions and defended India's nuclear weapons, saying it had been obliged to acquire them because neighboring Pakistan and China possess them...The two countries have refused to open negotiations."

The Nando Times September 22, 1999 reported: "Commercial sexual exploitation of children is growing, despite promises from more than 120 countries to halt abuse, pornography and sex tourism, according to children's rights workers gathered in Bangkok on Monday. While there has been progress in recent years, there is still a lack of political will and concrete action, said activist Carol Smolenski. ‘The problem is getting worse as the world is shrinking,’ said Smolenski, of the U.S. arm of ECPAT, a global non-governmental organization fighting child pornography, prostitution and trafficking. The children's rights activists said the easy availability of sex on the Internet - including pedophile chat lines and advertisements from companies that organize sex holidays - is among the key reasons why sexual exploitation of children is a bigger global problem than ever before. Activists from more than 50 countries were attending a conference to review implementation of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Sweden in 1996 with the support of the U.N. Children's Fund. In all, 122 countries joined the congress. But so far, only 19 have come up with national plans to combat child prostitution and pornography through legislation, improved law enforcement and attempts to boost public awareness. At the Stockholm congress, participating countries promised to do so by the end of 2000..."

Israeli / Palestinian PeaceProcess / Arab News

Note From MJB Editor: The everlasting covenant between God and Abraham (Israel) has been broken as the current Israeli Government has given away the land that God himself gave to the Jewish People for a false "peace" that shall never be. Now more than ever is the time for us to be prepared for the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus as the head of Jerusalem shall soon be on the Palestinian cutting block. There is no doubt that we are at the brink of the fullfilment of Bible prophecy... Keep your eyes on Israel,..Pray and be ready, for the King cometh…. -MJB

The London Times October 5, 1999 reported: "Palestinian Muslim leaders have denounced the opening of a new Jewish archaeological site beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount, the flashpoint for centuries of religious rivalry. Yesterday tourists, guarded by Israeli police, visited a huge staircase used by Jewish pilgrims at the time of Jesus to enter the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. The Herodian-era staircase, known as the Hulda Ascent, led to one of the entrances to the Second Temple, which now houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine in the Islamic world. The opening of the staircase and other important archae-ological finds at the site by Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister, has stirred anger among officials of the Jerusalem Wakf, the Muslim religious trust..."

Israeli radio Arutz 7October 5, 1999 reported: "President Ezer Weizman has called upon Austrian Jews to come on Aliyah [immigration to Israel] immediately, in the wake of the success of Austria's Freedom Party in yesterday's national vote. The party captured some 27% of the vote, and is now the country's second-largest. Party-leader Joerg Haider's campaign was characterized by calls to stop immigration to Austria, as well as constant warnings against the country's ‘over-foreignization.’ Haider, the son of a low-level World War II Nazi Party official, was forced out of his position as Governor of Carinthia eight years ago after saying that Adolf Hitler had ‘sound employment policies.’ He also reportedly once called veterans of the Gestapo ‘men of character.’ President Weizman said today, ‘Austrian Jews should draw the proper conclusions, and the sooner, the better.’ Foreign Minister David Levy, taking a calmer approach, said that Israel would first wait to see ‘what kind of government is formed in Austria, and would then decide on what steps to take.’ He said, however, that the election results ‘are an insult to the world and to mankind.’..."

Reuters October 4, 1999 reported: "Prime Minister Ehud Barak, voicing Israel's claim to all of Jerusalem, officially opened new archaeological excavations Sunday near the Temple Mount, a flashpoint of Arab-Israeli enmity. The step was seen as the latest signal by Barak that he would brook no compromise on the core issue of sovereignty over the holy city in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. ‘We ... are dutybound to turn these places surrounding us -- sacred to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism -- into a bridge and a symbol of freedom of access and worship, coexistence in peace...under the sovereignty of Israel,’ Barak said. As he spoke, police snipers to his side trained rifles with telescopic sights east toward the cemetery of the Mount of Olives in Arab East Jerusalem and south at the Palestinian Silwan neighborhood. The excavations, Barak said, underscored Israelis' ties to their past ‘as a people manifesting its freedom in its own nation, in its eternal capital.’..."

The Jerusalem Post October 4, 1999 reported: "The PA cabinet strongly condemned Israel's settlement policy and called for greater U.S. and particularly U.N. involvement in the final-status talks, in its weekly session Friday in Ramallah. The cabinet warned that settlement construction and expansion would be a fatal blow to the peace process. It also called a report by the Israeli peace group Peace Now ‘shocking.’ According to the report, the government issued tenders for 3,084 new housing units since July. The cabinet called on the US and the international community to intervene with Israel to stop settlement construction and expansion. Nabil Shaath, the PA minister of planning, said the PA is not planning to use the UN as a forum to condemn Israel, but wants the UN to discuss Israeli violations of UN resolutions and agreements. The PA wants the UN to be involved in the final-status talks and remain a point of reference for the talks, he said. He added that it is important that the UN remain involved, since the only guideline for the final-status talks mentioned in the Sharm e-Sheikh agreement are UN Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for a two-state solution and a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders..."

The London Times October 3, 1999 reported: "A giant bronze statue of the dictator in military uniform, his right arm raised in greeting, looms over the entrance. This is Saddam Hussein's desert equivalent of Disneyland. It is a theme park with a difference: closed to all but the stressed and long-suffering servants of Baghdad's brutal regime. While some of his people are starving, the Iraqi leader has spared no expense on the amusement park erected 85 miles northwest of Baghdad, complete with a Ferris wheel and an artificial lake. 'Saddamland' has come under the scrutiny of the CIA, which released satellite photographs of the site last week as part of America's campaign to expose the extravagance of a dictator who is depriving his people of food..."

The Jerusalem Post October 2, 1999 reported: "The army doesn't want to say it out loud, but behind closed doors the IDF is changing its attitude about Egypt -- This past spring, the Egyptian Armed Forces made a deal to purchase 10,800 rounds of 120mm smoothbore KEW-A1 ammunition for its M1A1 battle tanks. Just another arms purchase in the Middle East, only the KEW-A1 is a new version of the armor-piercing "silver bullet" made out of depleted uranium and said to be able to defeat any armor system on earth…Twenty years of "cold peace" have never eliminated the deep-rooted insecurities and mutual distrust between the IDF and Egyptian armed forces. While the peace treaty has given the IDF some breathing space in its planning, the military has never taken its eye off our southern neighbor and war plans still call for a hefty reserve force to be set aside for dealing with Egypt, no matter where the confrontation breaks out...Actually, since 1979, Egypt has received more than $35 billion in US military aid and economic assistance and spent some $25 billion on arms. It's armed forces are midway through a 10-year modernization plan and nearly half of its 3,100 tanks are Western, including 555 M1s, according to Jane's World Armies...Israeli commanders describe the improvements undertaken by the Egyptian military as nothing less than "amazing" and ‘scary.’ A few years ago, Egypt was a very marginal actor in the IDF threat assessment. But slowly Egypt has been moving front and center, and its increasingly sophisticated and Western military today represents, on paper, the biggest conventional military danger to the IDF - a status derived from an IDF decision to take into account the risk of a possible conflagration with Egypt..."

USA Today October 1, 1999 reported today: "Prime Minister Ehud Barak renewed a campaign pledge Thursday to get Israeli troops out of Lebanon by July 2000 - but he was evasive about whether he will do so if peace talks with Syria do not materialize. Syria wants assurances that Israel will hand back the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967, before it will agree to give its blessing to new security arrangements in Lebanon..."

Agence France Presse October 1, 1999 reported: "Hundreds of wealthy Beirutis, harkening to the appeal of their Sufi Moslem mystical leader, are moving to the mountains to avoid ‘catastrophes’ as the millennium approaches, AFP reported. Their leader, Sheikh Nazem Rabbani Haqani, known as al-Kobrossi (the Cypriot), has predicted that the ‘worst catastrophes’ will strike the world by 2000. ‘The world stands on a time bomb. The great explosion can occur at any time by 2000...save yourself with prayers, good actions and good intentions...to witness the arrival of the messiah Jesus and the establishment of the kingdom of justice,’ reads page 609 of Kobrossi's book. Sect member Fatima Kabbani asserts that ‘we are preparing ourselves to spend the winter here. We are afraid of Israeli attacks and natural catastrophes like in Taiwan, Florida, Turkey and Greece.’ ‘There are natural catastrophes everywhere, like the end of the world is getting near. Look, Sheikh Nazem talks about it in his book,’ said one housewife, holding a copy. The sect has members in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Brunei and northern Cyprus."

Golan Settlers Will Fight for the Heights

Conservative News Service October 1, 1999 -- Reported: With peace negotiations between Israel and Syria a possibility, and with diplomatic talk of returning all or part of the Golan Heights to Syria, Israelis across the country are waging a united campaign to hold onto the strategic plateau.

The London Times October 1, 1999 reported today: "Mustafa Zibri a radical Palestinian leader, arrived back in the West Bank yesterday after 30 years in a move Israel hopes will help the Middle East peace process. He was allowed to return to hold reconciliation talks with Yassir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman. Mr Zibri, alias Abu Ali Mustafa, is deputy head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was met by senior PLO officials after being cleared by Israeli security officers on the Jordanian border, at the Allenby Bridge crossing. ‘I'm happy because I am returning to my country Palestine and Palestine is everything for us as a people who have suffered injustice, expulsion and aggression, he told reporters. The popular front moved its headquarters to Syria in protest at Mr Arafat's decision to start talks with Israel in 1993. But, with support dwindling after six years in exile, the group is preparing to return to the West Bank and Gaza Strip..."

Associated Press September 30, 1999 reported: "President Clinton met with the Syrian foreign minister here today, a day after Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the U.S. still hopes for a jumpstart to stalled Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese peace talks. Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa visited the White House this morning as part of an extended trip to the United States that included inconclusive talks with U.S. diplomats in New York last week. The United States hopes to help persuade Israel to yield the strategic Golan Heights..."

Israel Still Occupies Egyptian Land: Egyptian Paper

Israel Wire September 30, 1999 -- Reported: Egypt is preparing for a fresh diplomatic battle with Israel to "restore the last bit of land the Jewish state has continued to occupy since 1949," the Egyptian Gazette newspaper reported on Tuesday. Contrary to the prevalent conclusion, Taba, a town close to the border with Israel, "was not the last piece of land" Egypt has recovered from Israel, "as Israel is still occupying Om i-Rashrash area west of (Israel's) Eilat Port," the newspaper said.

World Tribune September 30, 1999 reported: "In the first stage of Iranian naval maneuvers, the 'Shahamat 78' maneuver was launched in the Persian Gulf on Sunday. A spokesman for Iran's navy told the official IRNA news agency the exercises supported Iran's assertion that foreign military forces, a reference to the big U.S. presence in the region, were unnecessary to maintain peace and security. The Shahamat maneuver is part of a week-long naval maneuver with warships and submarines, which began on Saturday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is the gateway for about a quarter of the world's oil supplies. Iran wants to launch regional alliances with its Gulf Arab neighbors. It has tried in vain for a over decade to conduct joint military exercises with the Arab states, which had been wary of the war games Iranian forces regularly staged in the Gulf and Sea of Oman...The Unity 77 maneuvers, mark the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 war with Iraq. They will incorporate all three of Iran's Kilo-class Russian-built submarines for the first time, according to navy spokesman Abdollah Manavi..."

Russia Seeks to Improve Ties With Iraq

Reuters September 30, 1999 --Reported: Russia wants to improve its relations with Iraq and is ready to help in getting trade sanctions on Baghdad lifted, according to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) Thursday. INA said President Saddam Hussein received a message from Russian President Boris Yeltsin on his country's "desire to develop relations in all fields." INA said the message, conveyed to Saddam by visiting Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kalyuzhuy, confirmed "Russia's readiness now and in the future to work in order to lift the unjust sanctions on Iraq."

INA quoted Saddam as telling Kalyuzhuy that "such relations promote the independence of both parties and their position in the face of the international parties which endeavor to look down to the role of Iraq and the Arab nation." The agency said this would promote Russia's role on the international level. Iraq and Russia are expected to sign a deal Friday but nothing has been revealed on the contents.

Syria Urges U.S. to Pressure Israel to Yield Golan Heights

Israel Wire September 30, 1999 -- (UNITED NATIONS) Reported: Syria's foreign minister appealed to the United States and Europe Thursday to keep pressuring Israel to give up the Golan Heights, but said it wasn't a condition for peace negotiations to resume.
"Syria is anxious that this opportunity (to restart talks) should not be missed, but if it were to be missed, Israel alone should be blamed for it," Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa told the U.N. General Assembly.
He reiterated Syria's insistence that Israel honor an alleged promise by in 1995 then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to return all of the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace deal.
Israel maintains there was no such promise made regarding the territory that it captured from Syria in 1967 - a position reiterated Thursday by Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dore Gold who stressed that "Israel has not made any commitment to withdraw."

Reuters September 29, 1999 reported: "Iran on Tuesday announced its biggest oil find in 30 years, a giant 26-billion barrel field discovered as the country drives to revive exploration activities and foreign firms compete for big deals. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the oilfield in the prolific southwest Khuzestan province has the potential to produce up to 400,000 barrels a day. He told Tehran radio that development on the field, close to the Iraqi border, will start by the end of March 2001 and could earn revenues of some $100 billion given current estimates of recoverable reserves...’Exploration had been neglected for 20 years. Recently there has been a great deal of exploration effort and this find shows that Iran is still underexplored,’ said Iranian oil expert Manouchehr Takin of London's Centre for Global Energy Studies..."

BBC September 29, 1999 reported: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is likely to have spent the past year rebuilding his arsenal, the former UN chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, has said. Mr. Butler said it would be foolish to assume that the Iraqi leader had not been reconstituting his weapons capability in the period since United Nations arms monitoring was halted. He was testifying before the foreign relations committee of the US Senate in Washington. UN inspectors believe that they were close to uncovering sites where Baghdad was storing biological weapons when they were ordered to pull out of Iraq last December…America and Britain have continued to attack Iraqi sites on a regular basis since the Operation Desert Fox bombardment."

Israel Wire September 28, 1999 reported: "In an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, Faisal Husseini who holds the Jerusalem portfolio in the PLO Authority (PA) stated that western Jerusalem issues would also need to be worked out in the final status talks, explaining that most of the city was owned by Arabs. The government has already in the past received lists of land claims from Arab residents who explain their grandparents and parents owned properties in areas such as Dir Yassin, today known as Har Nof, and are once again trying to be recognized as the legal proprietors of the lands in order to be declared the owners once again."

Israel Wire September 27, 1999 -- Reported: Israel has proposed a new basis for renewal of talks with Damascus: Ehud Barak will publicly announce that he "accepts the inheritance of Yitzchak Rabin" in all matters relating to negotiations with Syria. Government officials in Jerusalem explain that this type of declaration can be understood in one of two ways: Syria will claim that Rabin had promised a full retreat from the Golan, while Israel will state that Rabin just presented the Syrians with a hypothetical question: "What would be the nature of a peace deal should Israel agree to retreat to the pre-1967 borders?"

Palestinians Seek Support of International Community

Israel Wire September 27, 1999 -- Reported: "PLO Authority (PA) Chairman Yassir Arafat on Saturday called upon the international community to support the Wye-2 (Sharm el-Sheik) agreement signed with Israel on September 4. Arafat made his appeal to the international community following a luncheon with French President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace. France repeated statements made last week during the brief visit of Prime Minister Ehud Barak, reiterating its willingness to assume a more prominent role in the ongoing Oslo process between Israel and the PA."

(MAJOR BREAKING PROPHECY NEWS SPECIAL)

Note From MJB Editor: This is it!!…. After 1,900 years of waiting, the third temple is about to be constructed!!... In this very Holy Temple, the Antichrist will proclaim himself falsely to be the living God before the entire world 3 and a half years into the tribulation. To build a structure like this is a major process taking at least 1-2 years to construct.. I believe this is proof that our Lord and Savior should be returning at anytime!! Praise Jesus!!,.. for Before our eyes all of the pieces of the puzzle are coming together in this generation as he promised… Remember the words of our Lord and Savior:

Cornerstone for the Third Temple - Sukkoth 5760 (1999)

Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement -- September 25, 1999 -- Reported: On Monday 27th September, 1999, the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles, at 09:00 AM, The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement will hold an historical event; the cornerstone for the Third Temple will be carried to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to be laid on the southeastern corner of the location of the First and Second Temples to start the godly process of the rebuilding of the Temple. The event will start at the Western Wall Plaza close to the ramp leading up to the Western Gate of the Temple Mount.

As usual, it appears that the Arabs who still manage the Temple Mount, will do their best to prevent this event from taking place and the Israeli authorities will not allow the cornerstone to be laid on the Temple Mount because of fear of the hostile Arab reaction. The Israeli authorities will only allow the cornerstone to be brought close to the Eastern Gate of the Temple Mount and to the City of David. However, we will do our best to convince the Israeli authorities to open the gates of the Temple Mount for the cornerstone.

This event, which was the biggest dream of the Jewish people over the last 1,900 years since the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., will completely change the status quo in Israel, the Middle East and all over the world. It will fire the imagination of all mankind and open their hearts and eyes to understand the godly end-time task which G-d gave to modern Israel. This will be a key event which will not only change the life of Israel but the life of all mankind. The rebuilding of the Temple will bring the major end-time events to a climax and open the gate for the coming of Mashiach ben David. This will show that we wish to bring the G-d of Israel and His commandments and laws into the centre of our life and the Word of G-d in Isaiah 2:2-5 will become a reality in our generation. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for from Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall decide for many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."

May God bless all of us that in this new Hebrew year, and very soon, we shall see the fulfillment of this major godly cause, the coming of Maschiach ben David and that we shall stand hand-in-hand before God in His rebuilt house in Jerusalem and we shall thank Him and give Him glory for the great privilege that He gave us of acting and working for this great cause at a time when it was so needed. This day is soon to come.

Faithful try to lay cornerstone again

Historical event on
Jerusalem's Temple Mount?

By Kaye Corbett
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM - In another dramatic and what could be traumatic move, the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, led by researcher and lecturer, Gershon Salomon, will attempt to move a 4.5 ton cornerstone into place for a planned Third Temple on Monday at 9 a.m. Jerusalem time. It would coincide with the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles in which thousands of Christians are in the city for the Feast.

 
Third Temple Rally

Ha'aretz (Israel) September 27, 1999 -- Reported: Jerusalem police are bracing themselves today as a group of religious Jews threaten to enter the Dome of the Rock area to lay a cornerstone for the building of the Third Temple. The High Court of Justice yesterday rejected the petition of Temple Mount Faithful's leader, Gershon Soloman, to enter the compound for prayers and a cornerstone laying ceremony. The decision to allow members to enter the compound at all was left to the Jerusalem region police commander, Major General Yair Yitzhaki, who is expected to make a ruling today.

A Historic Census of Priests and Levites to Begin Tonight

Arutz-7 Daily News (Israel) September 27, 1999 -- A census of all Kohanim (Priests) and Levi'im (Levites) - the first of its kind in 2,000 years - will kick off tonight in Jerusalem, in the context of the annual gathering of supporters of the building of the Third Temple. With the census, organizers are attempting to recreate the schedule of priestly and Levitical duties that existed during Temple times.

High Court Snubs Temple Mount Faithful

The Jerusalem Post September 27, 1999 -- (JERUSALEM) Tension over the status of the Temple Mount has increased in the nine years since a clash triggered by Palestinians who threw rocks at Jews worshipping at the Western Wall on Succot led to 19 deaths, Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Yair Yitzhaki said yesterday.

High Court Rejects Appeal for Jewish Prayer on the Temple Mount

Israel Wire September 27, 1999 -- The High Court of Justice on Sunday morning rejected an appeal by the Temple Mount Faithful organization, which was seeking permission to conduct Jewish prayer services on the Mount, Jerusalem's holiest site.

As has been the case in the past, senior police commanders have maintained a position opposing the Jewish prayers on the Mount on the grounds it would be deemed "provocative" and spark Islamic violence.

Commander Yair Yitzhaki who heads the Jerusalem District of the police told the High Court he felt that Jewish prayer on the Mount in light of the current political situation would be met with violence.

The court accepted the position of the police.


Extremists Launch Search for Cohens

Associated Press September 30, 1999 -- (JERUSALEM) An extremist group that hopes to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem has launched a search for descendants of the priests and caretakers of the ancient temples.

Organizers of the Second Annual Conference of the Lovers of the Temple said Monday they would use phonebooks and public records to track down Cohens and Levis, who could be called up for service if a third temple is built.

Those attending the conference hope to hasten the Messianic age by building a new temple on the site of the Second Temple, which was destroyed in 70 A.D. by Romans quelling a Jewish revolt.

Muslims, however, decry their movement, saying it seeks to destroy Islam's third holiest site - the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosques, which now stand on the site.

The vast majority of Jews reject plans to force Muslims off the Temple Mount. Attempts by extremists to lay claim to the site have led to bloody clashes with Muslims in the past. Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall, is the only remnant of the temple.

"Tonight we started a project in which we will be listing all Cohens and Levis in the Jewish movement," said Yehuda Etzyon, head of the Hai VeKayam - "Alive and Well" - organization.

The Cohens, the priestly caste in ancient times, led services at the temple. The Levis maintained the temple and were its musicians. Their descendants are identified primarily through their names, including Cohen, Levy and a wide range of derivatives.

A model of a rebuilt temple was displayed at the conference, and speakers called for the expulsion of Muslims from the site. About 200 people attended the conference, at Jerusalem's International Convention Center.

"One of the ideas of interest is to build a guard of Cohens and Levis, like the guards of the King and Queen in England, so people know this is the holiest place in Israel and not the place the Muslims stole," Etzyon said.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands turned out Monday at the Western Wall to mark Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. A row of Cohens, covered completely under white prayer shawls, raised their arms to bless the crowd.


Right-Wing Activists Looking to Purchase Land on Temple Mount

Ha'aretz (Israel) (JERUSALEM) October 1, 1999 -- Jewish right-wingers are stepping up their campaign to snap up land at the heart of the Temple Mount. The 3-dunam plot is registered as a family Waqf (Moslem trust) under the name of the Abu Saoud family, and is not, officially at least, a part of the general Waqf, currently controlled by the Palestinian Authority and previously controlled by Jordan.

At the center of the initiative is Esther Abutbul, formerly head of the Jerusalem office of the right-wing political party Tehiya, and a long-time member of the Temple Mount Faithful. Abutbul is working with Jewish and Arab realtors. One of the realtors is currently looking in Jordan for the heirs of Mrs. Abu Saoud, who passed away several years ago.

Abutbul, who has participated in hundreds of attempts to gain entry to the Temple Mount for organized Jewish prayers, says that if large sums of money must be raised to realize the goal of Jewish control of the Mount, then the funds must be found.See full story, Page B3Abutbul tried to buy the plot a decade ago, and even managed to raise $220,000 to this end, but at the last minute the Arab realtor involved in the deal changed his mind and pulled out. Azmi Abu Saoud, a member of the family and a prominent official at Orient House in East Jerusalem, told Ha'aretz that he cannot imagine that any member of his family, whether in Israel or in Jordan, would dare transfer a part of the property into Jewish hands. Abu Saoud said that while the property is still considered to be family-owned, the Muslim Waqf has been entrusted with its management. "Even if someone were to claim they purchased rights to the property, they would be dealing with the Waqf, not us. Today this area is an integral part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and any person - Jewish or not - who paid for it would risk their money.

BBC September 26, 1999 reported: "The Israeli Foreign Minister, David Levy, has held an unexpected meeting with his counterparts from more than 10 Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia. Mr Levy said he regretted that representatives from Syria and Lebanon has not taken part...The 90-minute meeting - planned in secret and jointly sponsored by the US and Russia - took place on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. ‘What was interesting was that discussions about the millennium were in the air, and the fact that this was the time to begin a new century with a comprehensive agreement,’ US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said after the meeting. The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, also attended - as did representatives from the European Union, Japan and the UN itself. No formal statement was issued after the talks, which was the largest gathering of Middle Eastern government representatives to discuss regional peace since the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on counter-terrorism in Egypt four years ago."

The Nando Times September 25, 1999 reported: "Certain peace talks with Syria are near, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak hinted Thursday at a formula that might satisfy Syrian conditions for restarting the negotiations after a three-year freeze. ‘I don't know if it will be in three weeks six weeks, nine weeks,’ Barak told Israel television, but ‘I have no doubt that talks between Israel and Syria will resume.’ He noted that Syrian President Hafez Assad negotiated with past Israeli governments, and emphasized that Israel has ‘not forgotten’ those talks. Syria has insisted that the talks begin from the point they left off, including a promise that Israel would return all of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in 1967. Israel does not acknowledge making the promise, but Barak has been looking for a way to accommodate the Syrians. His reference to the previous talks might be a feeler in that direction. Barak spoke after returning earlier Thursday from France, where he discussed Mideast issues with government leaders and predicted that peace with Syria could be achieved within 15 months..."

Associated Press September 22, 1999 reported: "Iran plans to manufacture gunships equipped with advanced weapons, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Monday. Quoting Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' air force, the agency said the gunships will be completed by 2005. Qalibaf did not provide further details on the gunships. He said a 15-seat helicopter was also being developed and would be test-flown by the end of 2004. On Sunday, the agency reported that a surface-to-surface missile will be displayed during Sacred Defense Week, to be held Wednesday through Sept. 28. It did not disclose the range of the missile, named Zelzal, which means earthquake, or whether it will be capable of carrying nuclear warheads."

Russian Government (Gog of Magog)

"Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog (Russia), the chief prince of Meshech (Moscow) and Tubal (Tobolsk), and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia (Iran/Iraq), Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer (Western Europe?), and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (Turkey/Armenia) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee."

"...Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them? And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face."… Ezekiel 38:2-6, 14-18

The World Tribune October 5, 1999 reported: "Jordan's influential Chechen community has urged the Arab and Muslim world to stop Russia's offensive against the autonomous republic. The Jordanian Society for the Support of Chechnya, in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urged Arab and Muslim leaders to ‘move quickly to stop the Russian aggression against the people of Chechnya, who are now facing genocide because of its commitment to the Islamic ideology.’ The group also called on the international community for an ‘immediate and effective intervention to end the continuous Russian onslaught against the people of Chechnya.’ There are an estimated 40,000 Chechens in Jordan and many of them hold senior positions in the security forces and intelligence departments. Russian intelligence sources said the Jordanian community has funneled funds to support the Islamic fundamentalists in the Russian republic..."

Associated Press October 5, 1999 reported this afternoon: "The distant echo of crashing artillery rounds signaled the approach of the Russian military Tuesday -- now only 15 miles outside Chechnya's gloomy capital. Russian tanks and infantry, supported by daily airstrikes, have faced only scattered resistance since crossing into Chechnya a week ago with the aim of establishing a security zone along the rim of the renegade republic. Russian forces have seized the northern third of Chechnya, and additional military operations are planned, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in Moscow. In fighting Tuesday, Russian troops battled Chechen forces around the village of Chervlyonnaya, on the Terek River 15 miles northeast of Grozny, the Chechen capital..."

The London Time October 4, 1999 reported: "A month ago Grozny was teeming - a bombed-out city which nevertheless had a thriving bazaar as well as a grim reputation for hostage-taking. The capital of Chechnya is now quiet, dark at night and virtually empty, as the rebel province heads for full-scale conflict with Moscow…I drove in on Saturday, one of a small group of journalists escorted by carloads of armed guards and shielded - we hoped - by a personal guarantee of safety from President Aslan Maskhadov. A former Soviet artillery commander, he runs Chechnya from a presidential palace defended like a fortress. Its ground floors are now bunkrooms for soldiers, who met us in force, swaggering, smoking, bulky with ammunition clips strapped to their chests...The Government is an elected one, voted in two years ago and fighting for its life as Moscow once again resorts to massive force to bring Chechnya to heel...Mr Maskhadov challenged President Yeltsin not to repeat the worst blunder of his career, the 1994-96 war in which 80,000 died and the Russian Army was humiliated. ‘Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin: let us meet for 30 minutes, eye to eye, without intermediaries, and we can solve this crisis,’ Mr Maskhadov, wearing military fatigues, said. Otherwise he was defiant: ‘We have lost 400 dead,’ he said. ‘We have 3,000 wounded. We have no humanitarian aid and fighting is in progress in two northern districts. This war has begun, and we will win it.’"

The London Telegraph October 4, 1999 reported today: "Russian troops pressed on into Chechnya yesterday, expanding what Moscow calls a ‘security zone’ inside Chechen territory but avoiding the frontal assault that helped it lose the last war against the rebel republic. The advance came mainly in the mountains of Chechnya's east and the plains in the north while tanks and artillery shelled insurgent positions from the west. In some places the Russian military were reported to be up to 10 miles inside Chechnya but, so far, their objective appears to be to set up a triple line of defense to protect Russia from guerrillas, not an invasion. Interior Ministry soldiers will provide the main layer of defense supported by mobile units of regulars with responsibility for heading off Chechen attacks, the military said. Until now, Russian forces have avoided Chechen settlements - even agreeing to a request from elders of one village under their control, Borozdinovka, that they stay outside its bounds. When the Russian army invaded Chechnya five years ago, , columns of armor headed straight for the capital, Grozny, expecting little resistance. They were met instead by murderous fire from the guerrillas, especially in the towns..."

The London Times October 3,1999 reported today: "As the Russian military intensified its assault on the breakaway republic of Chechnya, it emerged yesterday that the Kremlin has drawn up plans to assassinate the Muslim guerrilla leaders it blames for a terrorist bombing campaign that has claimed the lives of nearly 300 people. Russian intelligence sources said special forces had been ordered to find and kill Shamil Basayev and the warlord known as Khattab, who are believed to have grouped their fighters in and around Grozny, the Chechen capital. Two plans are apparently being considered by the Russians, who have carried out dozens of reconnaissance flights in recent days to monitor the rebels' movements. Under the first, Basayev's and Khattab's men would be surrounded by a force of some 50,000 Russian troops and then bombed. Alternatively, the Russians would strike at Basayev from the air after homing in on the signal from his satellite telephone - the same tactic used in 1996 to kill Jokhar Dudayev, the former Chechen president who was blown up in a wood during a long call to Moscow..."

The London Times reported October 3, 1999 today: "The controversial daughter and self-styled 'image adviser' of Boris Yeltsin has dismissed claims that her father is planning to declare a state of emergency so that he can hold onto power after his second term as president ends next June. In a rare interview, Tatyana Dyachenko, 38, poured scorn on persistent reports that the 68-year-old leader and his inner circle intend to use the growing crisis in the southern republics of Chechnya and Dagestan as a pretext to cancel next year's presidential poll. Speculation about the possibility of ‘unconstitutional moves’, she said, was ‘a crude hoax intended to whip up pseudo-popular support’. Russia's constitution bars Yeltsin from serving a third term. ‘Sooner or later my father will leave political life, but not in any unconstitutional way. He will exit according to the constitution and the law,’ Dyachenko said. ‘No Russian leader in history has relinquished power voluntarily, so he will set a precedent of a normal, civilised departure from politics.’ Speaking at a reception in the Kremlin, Dyachenko also rejected suggestions that Russia was in political crisis, retorting: ‘The crisis is only in your head.’..."

The London Telegraph October 2, 1999 reported today: "Several thousand Russian soldiers supported by armoured vehicles entered Chechnya, Russia's breakaway republic, yesterday, beginning an undeclared war that no one wants to admit to but everybody wants. Reports from Grozny, the Chechen capital, said a large number of Russian troops had entered the republic. Other, unconfirmed, reports said that artillery had taken up positions in western Chechnya. More troops are establishing themselves in strategic positions on the border with Dagestan and a column of tanks has moved 50 miles into the territory from the northern border with Russia. No details of these forces were given, and there has been no Russian confirmation of the action. On the same day the Kremlin-sponsored Chechen parliament reappeared in Moscow and threw its support behind Russia. Yesterday's deployment follows Moscow's admission on Monday that sporadic fighting between federal forces and Islamic rebels has been going on for two weeks and that Russian troops have taken up strategic positions on hills inside Chechnya..."

The London Times October 1, 1999 reported today: "Russia has asked for more help from the United States to safeguard stocks of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium removed from redundant intercontinental ballistic missiles (Michael Evans writes). The appeal, which comes with the authority of Igor Sergeyev, the Defence Minister, arises from concern about the risk of terrorist attacks on nuclear installations. Explosions in Moscow that officials attributed to ‘Chechen terrorists’ have underlined the potential threat facing the 30 sites that stockpile fuel. There are another 23 sites in former Russian republics. Moscow, Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna have already signed an agreement to protect the nuclear sites. Moscow wants further security. Bill Richardson, the US Energy Secretary, told The New York Times that under the expanded arrangements, Russia would need to grant the US greater access to highly sensitive sites..."

BBC October 1, 1999 The reported today: "Several thousand Russian soldiers, supported by more than 1,000 armored vehicles, have moved about five kilometres (three miles) into northern Chechnya, according to regional officials. The Russian unit, stretching some 80km (50 miles) across, moved into Chechnya's northern Naursky and Sholkovsky regions late on Thursday, according to local officials quoted by Agence-France Press. There were no immediate reports of any hostilities with Chechen forces, who were reported to be digging trenches to prevent the Russian troops advancing..."

Reuters September 29, 1999 reported: "Russian former general Alexander Lebed has suggested the bombing of Chechnya and bomb attacks on apartment blocks in Moscow could be part of a covert government bid to destabilize Russia and cancel forthcoming elections. Lebed, a possible contender to succeed President Boris Yeltsin next year, told French daily Le Figaro in an interview released ahead of publication on Wednesday that the current bombing of breakaway Chechnya was either stupid or a sinister bid to destabilize Russia...Lebed, who won a peace deal to end Russia's disastrous war in Chechnya three years ago, said the bombs were bound to unite the Chechen people as they were killing civilians but missing rebels Moscow accuses of acts of violence in Russia. ‘Therefore, once again, we will have to face a whole people. If you wage total war, any people will rise up to fight round the clock,’ he said. Lebed said he might be called on again to end the war...Lebed said he was "almost convinced" that the government was behind bomb attacks which have killed almost 300 people in Moscow and other Russian cities. Russian officials have blamed the blasts on Chechen warlords...’The president and 'the family' are isolated. They lack any political strength to win the elections. Faced with a desperate situation, the government can have only one aim: destabilize, so that there will be no elections,’ he said…Asked what the rulers were prepared to do to retain power, he said: ‘Anything in order to stay in power. Anything goes.’..."

Associated Press September 28, 1999 reported: "President Boris Yeltsin approved a draft agreement on merging Russia and Belarus and ordered his aides to prepare for public discussion of the document, the Kremlin said Monday. Russian authorities want to release the draft agreement later this week, but haven't yet received the go-ahead from Belarus, Yeltsin's deputy chief of staff Sergei Prikhodko said, according to the Interfax news agency. Russia, which has a population of 146 million people, and Belarus, with 10 million people, have been discussing a plan to merge. In 1996, Yeltsin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a union agreement boosting political, economic and military ties between the two nations, but stopped short of creating a single state. Public discussion of the draft agreement will most likely involve publishing it in Russian and Belarusian newspapers, along with letters of response from readers. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said it will not involve a public referendum."

Agence France Presse September 22, 1999 reported: "The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has linked Russian officials close to President Boris Yeltsin to the Bank of New York money laundering scandal, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The FBI team looking into the money laundering scheme has discovered transactions involving Leonid Dyachenko, the husband of Yeltsin's younger daughter, Tatyana, as well as Pavel Borodin, the head of Yeltsin's property management team, senior Clinton administration officials told the newspaper. U.S. federal officials would not say if Yeltsin's son-in-law had an account at the Bank of New York or if he channeled money through accounts of a company called Benex, the Times reported. But the amount of money that both Dyachenko and Borodin moved through the Bank of New York was ‘substantial,’ officials told the Times, giving few other details.As soon as the Borodin and Dyachenko bank transactions were discovered, the U.S. Justice Department told the senior Clinton officials that they should no longer say that there is no evidence of official Russian involvement in the scandal, according to the Times.’This changes the whole tenor of things,’ a U.S. government official said. ‘Now U.S. investigators are saying’ that top Russian officials are involved, he said’..."

Peoples Republic of China

October 4, 1999 The South China Morning Post reported today: "President Jiang Zemin has largely obtained the party's blessing to remain the top leader as long as his health permits. Yesterday's parade confirmed the 73-year-old politician as having a stature equal to that of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. This was made clear at the symbolic level by the three equally huge portraits of the leaders. Moreover, Mr Jiang was the only member of the Politburo who wore a Mao suit, a clear indication of his special ties with heroes in the party pantheon. A Beijing source said Mr Jiang's publicists had originally earmarked the anniversary to unveil Jiang Zemin Theory. The postponement of this was made up for by the fact that official television commentaries cited areas where he was said to have gone beyond Mao and Deng. These included keeping stability while maintaining high economic growth; speeding up the pace of national unification; raising the PLA's combat standards to world levels; and an activist foreign policy. The giant Jiang portrait showed him reading the Political Report at the 15th Party Congress of 1997, which was seen as a theoretical breakthrough. The report advocated the coexistence of a ‘wholly state-owned economy’ with other forms of ownership through developing shareholding companies and firms with foreign and private capital..."

Associated Press October 2, 1999 reported today: "Without fanfare, China is preparing to hold its first joint naval exercise with Russia, adding to warming ties after decades of rivalry with its former communist ‘big brother.’ The navy contacts did not appear to be a step toward formal military cooperation, even though business ties between the two countries are growing and China is a big buyer of Russian arms. Russia's Defense Ministry said the exercise would take place when two Russian warships visit Shanghai today through Wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949. China's Defense Ministry in Beijing and its Eastern Fleet headquarters refused to give details. But an official of the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office said the exercise during a ‘friendship visit’ was arranged by Chinese commanders, not political leaders. ‘This is a private activity organized by the Eastern Fleet,’ said the official, who identified himself as Mr. Xi. The two nations also celebrated the 50th anniversary today of the opening of ties between China and the then-Soviet Union, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. In an exchange of messages with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Chinese President Jiang Zemin expressed pleasure that bilateral ties ‘have not only been set on normal tracks in a smooth and healthy way, but are growing ripe,'Xinhua said..."

The International Herald Tribune September 28, 1999 reported today: "U.S. specialists in international affairs are closely monitoring signs of increased cooperation among Russia, China and India, along with a growing sense in all three countries, especially after NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia this spring, that U.S. power must somehow be checked. Although agreeing that the three nations are far from coalescing into a Eurasian anti-NATO axis, the analysts remain concerned about a potentially grave threat: an alliance that would bring together about 2.5 billion people, formidable military might and a vast stockpile of nuclear weapons, all held together by the goal of countering America's global dominance. ‘Right now, you have flirting,’ said Charles William Maynes, president of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. ‘I don't know where this is going to go. If we play our cards right, it's going to go nowhere.’ But if the relationships progress, Mr. Maynes said, ‘then you basically have the world's heartland - 2 billion people in China and India - allied with a formidable technological power in Russia. That would be a disaster for the United States.’…The blossoming relationships are already changing the military equation in Asia…The political desire for closer cooperation is reflected in high-level rhetoric about the need for greater cooperation, usually mixed with thinly veiled anti-Western comments or calls for a ‘multipolar world’ - which means counterbalancing America's global dominance. During a visit to India in December, Yevgeni Primakov, then prime minister of Russia, floated the idea of a ‘strategic triangle’ committing the three nations to a policy of regional peace and stability..."

Agence France Presse September 28, 1999 reported: "The United States will push Beijing for more concessions on trade regulations Monday when bilateral negotiations resume on China's accession to the World Trade Organization, U.S. officials say. China, which is eager to join the global trade group, has so far been resistant to all the concessions Washington has demanded..."

CNN September 27, 1999 reported: "Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Monday that China wanted ‘peaceful unification’ with Taiwan, but added that it would not back down from threats to use force, if necessary, to bring the island back under Chinese control. Jiang was speaking to some 800 international business leaders gathered in Shanghai for the opening of the Fortune Global Forum. In a speech he also used to tout China's appeal to international business, the president warned other countries not to interfere with China's internal issues..."

European Union (Revived Roman Empire)

"After that, I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast-terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured it's victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns, (10 original Nations of the European Union), (Revived Roman Empire).

While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, (the Antichrist), a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully… Daniel 7:7-8

The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings-and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers (Raptured & Dead in Christ)… Revelations 17:12-14

The London Times October 5, 1999 reported yesterday: "Ministers in Brussels will today put the finishing touches to a five-year program to create a ‘European Area of Justice’, which diplomats are comparing in scope to the single currency (Martin Fletcher writes). The program, to be launched at next week's European Union summit in Finland envisages that court rulings in one member state will be recognized throughout the EU and that suspected criminals will be repatriated without the need for court proceedings. It also aims to tackle the problem of illegal immigrants by agreeing a definition of a refugee, which could mean refugees given asylum in one country would have the right to live and claim benefits in any other. But Britain and other states are opposed to full-scale harmonization."

The London Telegraph October 5, 1999 reported today: "ROMANO PRODI reignited one of the fiercest arguments in the European Union yesterday, telling Britain that it would soon have to abandon its £2 billion annual rebate from the Brussels budget. The comments by the president of the European Commission set the stage for the first big battle between Mr Prodi and Tony Blair, as EU leaders face up to the cost of expansion into central and eastern Europe...Addressing the issue for the first time as commission president, Mr Prodi told Spiegel magazine that ‘before the end of my term of office in January 2005 the EU will be bigger’, adding that the costs of expansion would be ‘high’ for all member states. Asked whether this meant that the British would lose their rebate he said: ‘I assume so. Each country must carry a full share of the burden.’...In a separate speech in Wiesbaden, Germany, he said EU expansion would be a ‘win-win game’ for all EU citizens. He said: ‘There are no losers. Everybody should benefit from it. . . The taxpayers will see that their money is being used wisely for the common good.’ He said EU leaders should agree ‘a precise timetable for the unification process’ when they met in Helsinki in December. He said they should make sure they were ready to take in the first batch of new members by 2002..."

Agence France Presse October 1, 1999 reported today: "European trade ministers met Friday to put the final touches on a common strategy ahead of what is expected to be a difficult new round of global free trade talks at a WTO meeting next month...The trade ministers, who met for the first time since Romano Prodi and his commissioners took over their new briefs in mid-September, were also to look into the final declaration of the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Seattle, Washington due to begin on November 30. The declaration is to be basis for future trade negotiations...Diplomats in Brussels said Europeans widely agree that a large range of issues should be discussed in Seattle including agriculture, the environment, competition, social relations and trade with developing nations. The United States, on the other hand, has come out in favor of a more restricted agenda that should give priority to agriculture and the service industry. ‘We want an economy with rules because this is fairer than a system without rules,’ said Italian Trade Minister Piero Fassino...The text adopted by the ministers in Brussels is to be ratified by an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on October 11."

The London Telegraph September 27, 1999 reported today: "The European Union is about to embark upon its most ambitious programme of integration since monetary union with moves towards common procedures in immigration, asylum and judicial policy. A summit of EU leaders in Finland next month will also give fresh momentum to ambitions set out in the Treaty of Amsterdam for the creation of a European Area of Justice. Among the ideas being discussed are a common asylum and immigration policy to cover the entire EU; extra powers for Europol to tackle cross-border crime; the mutual recognition of arrests, convictions and judgments between countries; and harmonising areas of civil law. Other proposals include the creation of a ‘Eurojust’ unit composed of national prosecutors or magistrates vested with powers to prosecute cross-border criminal activities. Joint investigation teams could be formed and there is likely to be agreement on setting up a European Police Staff College, which might be opened in Britain. The programme has been made possible under the Treaty of Amsterdam that came into force in the spring. It obliges member states to co-operate more closely in justice and home affairs. Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said the project was in some ways comparable in scope and importance to the programme leading to the single European market in 1992. It will raise fresh concerns, however, about the EU's continued drive towards closer union..."

Agence France-Press September 25, 1999 reported: "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will represent Russia at next month's European Union-Russia summit, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing the president's press office as a source. The summit will take place in Helsinki on Oct. 22. Participants in the summit will be Finland, Austria and Russia. Finland took the EU presidency over from Austria July 1. Russian and Finnish representatives discussed the forthcoming meeting, ‘paying special attention to the prospects of developing Russia's partnership with the EU,’ the dispatch said. Normally President Boris Yeltsin would have represented Russia. However, according to diplomatic sources, ‘it has become a tradition for Putin to represent President Yeltsin. He represented Yeltsin recently in New Zealand at an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit. Yeltsin called Putin his successor, so they are from one team.’ The last time that Yeltsin led a Russian delegation to a Russia-EU summit was in May 1998 in Birmingham, Britain. Russia-EU summits started after ratification of a partnership and cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia in 1997. They are designed to regulate political and economic relations between the countries. The summits are meant to avoid Russia's isolation from political developments in Europe as Russia is not a member of the EU..."

EU Court Rules Against British Ban on Gays in Armed Forces

CNN (STRASBOURG, France) September 27, 1999 -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled Monday that Britain's ban on homosexuals in the armed forces is a breach of human rights.

The court found in favor of three men and a woman who were discharged from the British armed forces in line with its absolute ban on homosexual personnel after they admitted their sexual orientation.

The court said the British policy violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which defends the right to respect for private and family life.

"The Court considered the investigations, and in particular the interviews of the applicants, to have been exceptionally intrusive," the European court said in a statement.

"The investigations conducted into the applicants' sexual orientation together with their discharge from the armed forces constituted especially grave interferences with their private lives," it said.

Talbott: Next Century, America Will Not Exist in Current Form, 'All States Will Recognize a Single, Global Authority.'

The Drudge Report September 27, 1999 -- Reported: Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott believes the United States may not exist in its current form in the 21st Century -- because nationhood throughout the world will become obsolete!

Talbott, who is profiled in the NEW YORK TIMES on Monday [for the second time in six months], has defined, shaped and executed the Clinton administration's foreign policy. He has served at the State Department since the first day of the Clinton presidency.

Just before joining the administration, Talbott wrote in TIME magazine -- in an essay titled "The Birth of the Global Nation" -- that he is looking forward to government run by "one global authority."

"Here is one optimist's reason for believing unity will prevail ... within the next hundred years ... nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority," Talbott declared in the July 20, 1992 issue of TIME.

"A phrase briefly fashionable in the mid-20th century -- 'citizen of the world' -- will have assumed real meaning by the end of the 21st."

Talbott continued: "All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary."

Talbott's belief that the United States of America and other nations are "artificial and temporary" continues to cause a rift inside of the State Department, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

"I think we are losing sight that we work for the American taxpayer, not Russia, not Asia," one State Department veteran told the DRUDGE REPORT in Washington. "Mr. Talbott is completely consumed with world order and has alienated many career employees here. [His] attitude borders on obsession."

In recent months, Talbott has come under fire for his stand on Russia. The policy of financial and political engagement with Russia as revelations pour forth of massive money-laundering schemes has made Talbott the target of critics, reports John Broder at the TIMES.

"We have to be calm and steady and have a clear sense of purpose," Talbott tells Monday's NEW YORK TIMES.

"One of my modest suggestions to the world is strategic patience. We have to be calm and steady and have a clear sense of purpose when that dynamic is discouraging, as it is today," Talbott explains.

Global government has proven to be slightly more complicated than one optimist dreamed.


EU Seen Widening List of Potential New Members

Associated Press September 28, 1999 -- (BERLIN) Most European Union countries favor widening the list of potential members to include several Balkan countries, the new commissioner for EU expansion said Tuesday.

"The expansion strategy has gained fresh momentum" with efforts to integrate southeastern Europe after the war for Kosovo, Guenter Verheugen told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Closer ties are planned with Albania and Macedonia in the form of so-called association treaties, while talks with Romania and Bulgaria could begin soon, Verheugen told the paper. EU leaders could make an offer at the year-end summit in Helsinki to begin membership talks, he said.

"A clear majority is developing behind the idea to offer an opening of talks in Helsinki to all countries with which we are not yet negotiating," he was quoted as saying.

The 15-nation EU bloc, comprised largely of Western European nations, allows member nations freer movement of money, material and workers across national borders.

Six countries - Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and Cyprus - are currently negotiating with the EU to join the trade bloc.

Verheugen urged the candidates to "stay on the ground" with their expectations, saying the first new members might join by 2002.

Libya Invited to Take Part in Meetings on Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

Arabic News September 30, 1999 -- A government source in Libya, Hasounah al-Shawesh, said on Wednesday in Tripoli that Libya has received an invitation from the European Union to take part in the next meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. He said, "Libya's participation in these meetings comes because it is an effective member in the international community on the grounds of the role it plays in the Mediterranean region and its relentless work in order to make this sea a lake of security, peace and cooperation for the countries of this region."

North and South Korean Conflict

Reuters October 5, 1999 reported: "Twenty-two workers were exposed to radiation at a South Korean nuclear power plant Monday from a leak of heavy water during maintenance on the plant's water cooling pump, Yonhap news agency. Yonhap said the accident occurred at about 7 p.m. Monday at Wolsung nuclear power reactor No. 3 in northern Kyongsang Province, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Yonhap gave no further details and ministry officials were not immediately available for comment. The leak follows Japan's worst nuclear accident last Thursday when workers mixing a uranium solution triggered a nuclear chain reaction at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, about 90 miles northeast of Tokyo..."

NORTH KOREA PURCHASES WEAPONS INSTEAD OF FOOD

CNN September 29, 1999 reported: "North Korea has imported $156 million worth of weapons since 1995 despite severe food shortages and economic difficulties, South Korea's government said Tuesday. Most of the weapons came from Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics and from China, Seoul's Defense Ministry said in a report to the National Assembly…North Korea stopped buying new weapons in the early 1990s with the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the collapse of its centrally planned economy. But it began buying conventional weapons again in 1995. It spent $51.8 million on foreign weapons last year, the ministry said..."

North Korea To Use Bio-Chem Arms If War Erupts

Reuters (SEOUL) October 1, 1999 -- Communist North Korea would likely use bio-chemical weapons if war ever erupted on the highly militarized Korean peninsula, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said Friday.

"If war breaks out, North Korea is likely to use bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction in an attempt to inflict an initial major blow against us," Kim said in a speech on Armed Forces Day.

"We are dealing with North Korea which is pouring all its resources into beefing up its military capability in the midst of a tragic famine and economic crisis," he said.

"It is doing incomprehensible things under the absurd motto of 'Building a Great Nation of Strength and Prosperity.'"

Scoffers of the Last Days & Religious Persecution

CNN October 4, 1999 reported: "An unrepentant Minnesota Reform Party Gov. Jesse Ventura Sunday deflected criticism aimed at him over a controversial Playboy magazine interview in which he said organized religion was for ‘weak-minded people.’... In his interview with Playboy, the Minnesota governor and former professional wrestler is quoted as saying that ‘organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business.’ Asked Sunday [on the Meet the Press TV program] if he thought priests, nuns, ministers and rabbis could be considered weak-minded people, Ventura responded, ‘No, I don't, not necessarily.’ ‘And being weak-minded is not necessarily a detriment,’ he said. ‘It just means that you have a weakness and, therefore, you go to organized religion to help strengthen yourself. That's the context in which I talked about it. And for those people, it's OK.’ Ventura said he considers himself a Christian and believes Jesus Christ is the savior. But he also said that ‘I don't believe necessarily that I need a church to go to.’..."

CNN September 29, 1999 reported: "While the approach of the year 2000 is drawing Christian pilgrims from across the world to visit Biblical holy lands in Israel and the West Bank, bringing much-anticipated tourism revenue to the region, it has also drawn visitors the Israeli hosts prefer would stay home -- those who hope to witness the end of the world. Among the crowds of Christians traveling to the Middle East ahead of the new year, a minority of fundamentalist followers are bringing with them visions of a second coming of Jesus -- an event that, according to New Testament prophesy, signifies the apocalypse...When a group of Zionist Christians converged this week in Israel for an annual festival [Rosh hashana], some militant Jews greeted them with shouts of ‘Danger! Danger, Missionaries!’ and ‘Jesus is dead!’ ‘The implicit message of the (Christian) apocalyptic scenario is that we're the target, that world war is going to happen here, according to the fundamentalist agenda,’ said Yossi Klein-Halevy, of the Jerusalem Report. The umbrella group that sponsored this week's Christian gathering, the International Christian Embassy, urged Israelis to welcome millennium pilgrims, saying that while "the Christian Embassy shares with many others a firm belief in the 'coming of the Lord,'... the vast majority of Christians do not take seriously anyone who may be seeing with certainty either 2000 or 2001 as the date for Christ's return..."

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency September 23, 1999 reported: "More than 4 out of 10 Russians hold strong anti-Semitic views, according to a survey released by the Anti-Defamation League. The latest poll found that 44 percent of the respondents embrace a range of stereotypes about Jews, including a belief that Jews exercise too much power in Russia and in world business, and that Jews ‘are ready to use unscrupulous means to achieve their aims.’ The ADL called the findings ‘extremely troubling and potentially dangerous.’"

India Under Fire Over Christian Rights

BBC October 1, 1999 -- The US-based Human Rights Watch has accused the Indian Government of failing to prevent violence against Christians, and of exploiting sectarian tensions for political ends.

In a 37-page report, the organization says that attacks against Christians have increased "significantly" since the Hindu Nationalist BPJ party came to power in 1998.

It accuses right-wing Hindu extremist groups close to the BJP of being responsible for most of the attacks.

The uncompromising report will be welcomed by Christians in India who have consistently accused hardline Hindus of creating a climate of religious hatred in which attacks against minorities go unpunished.

Play Depicting Homosexual Jesus to Open in London

Catholic World News (LONDON) October 1, 1999 -- Terrence McNally's controversial play, which depicts Jesus and his disciples as homosexuals, will have its London premier at the end of October, despite opposition from Christians.

"Corpus Christi" angered Christians when it first opened in New York earlier this year, and there were threats of violence at the Manhattan Theatre Club. The play was also blasted during a run at last summer's Edinburgh Festival.

Director Stephen Hendry, himself a Catholic, has denied that the play is an attack on Christianity. In an interview with The Catholic Times he said: "We're not trying to say that Jesus was gay. We're just looking at his passion in a modern setting. Unfortunately the people who should really see the play are the people who will probably stay away."

Outrage!, the extremist homosexual rights group which has disrupted services at Westminster Cathedral with protests, has defended the play on the basis that "there is no authoritative information about Jesus' sexuality."

Public schools teaching occult religion?

Lawsuit challenges tax funding
of New Age curriculum
By Stephan Archer
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The implementation of the Waldorf curriculum -- an educational philosophy related to the New Age religion "Anthroposophy" -- in some California public schools, has stirred up controversy as opponents say its use violates the U.S. Constitution.

Is the Waldorf curriculum intended to indoctrinate children in an occult religion? "I think that it's a curriculum that attempts to be palatable for public consumption," says Danny Aguirre, access line director at the Spiritual Counterfeits Project in Berkeley, Calif., "but there's a strategy to subtly influence the children toward Anthroposophy."

WorldNetDaily contacted Scott M. Kendall, the attorney for PLANS in the case and an affiliate attorney of the Pacific Justice Institute. "This case is about whether or not Waldorf Schools can be publicly funded," said Kendall, "because Waldorf schools historically have been private religious schools, and just recently, over the last ten years, they've been able to manage to get school boards to publicly fund them either as magnet schools or as charter schools."

World Pestilence, Famine And Disease

..." there will be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in various places."… Matthew 24:7

CNN October 5, 1999 reported: "Public health officials raised the number of reported cases to 37 on Sunday in New York's outbreak of a West Nile-like virus that is blamed for the deaths of four people. Two other deaths outside New York City -- one in suburban Westchester County and the other in Toronto -- are now blamed on the disease. In the Canadian case, a 75-year-old man died a few days after he visited the New York borough of Queens, Canadian officials say: The case has not been confirmed by U.S. officials..."

The Washington Post September 27, 1999 reported today: "A virus never before seen" in the Western Hemisphere caused at least one of the deaths in New York City attributed to St. Louis encephalitis, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the CDC, said that scientists there finished analyzing DNA late Friday from a tissue sample from one of three New York City residents who have died of a mysterious mosquito-borne virus in recent weeks. ‘We were able to identify West Nile-like virus,’ she said. ‘We're using the word "like" to indicate that we still have some more work to do to determine if it is a variation on the strain of West Nile or a new virus.’ Officials said the unprecedented discovery of the virus in the United States was no cause for alarm, as the pesticide spraying now under way to combat St. Louis encephalitis should also work against the mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus..."

Fox News September 23, 1999 reported: "Highly drug-resistant strains of the AIDS virus are on the rise, showing up in as many as 4.5 percent of newly infected patients, according to two new studies published today. The studies in today's Journal of the American Medical Association involve mostly gay white men. Resistance, however, may be more prevalent in other groups, such as drug users and their sex partners, researchers said. ‘Resistance is slowly increasing,' said Dr. Roger Pomerantz, an expert not involved with either study, ‘If you were looking at this five years ago, you would see zero.' About 40,000 new HIV infections occur yearly in the United States. In recent years, powerful drug cocktails have subdued the virus to undetectable levels in many patients. But studies have found the virus persists or comes roaring back in 10 percent to 50 percent. The complicated drug regimen has proved difficult to adhere to, and many patients who missed doses or quit taking their medicines developed drug-resistant infections that are now being passed along to others."

TB, Other Diseases Reemerge to Threaten Millions in the Americas

CNN (SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) September 27, 1999 -- Reported: Tuberculosis, cholera and other diseases once thought almost eradicated in the Americas have developed drug-resistant strains and again threaten millions, the hemisphere's top health official said Monday.

Other diseases identified as reemerging in the last decade:

New Virus Detected in Manhattan

Associated Press Mon. Sept. 27 -- (NEW YORK) A strain of encephalitis never before reported in the United States is to blame for at least one of three deaths in the city, federal health officials said.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Protection identified a "West Nile-like" virus in the victim on Friday and were continuing to determine the specific strain, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said.

"We're using the word 'like' to indicate that we still have some more work to do to determine if it is a variation on the strain of West Nile or a new virus," she said.

Health officials said last week that a virus believed to be West Nile had been found in dead birds in the metropolitan region. Reynolds said the West Nile virus is usually found in Africa and Europe, never before in the United States.


Insect-Borne Outbreak Grows in NYC

Associated Press September 28, 1999 -- (NEW YORK) Scientists have tossed out their original diagnosis of a mosquito-borne ailment that has killed four people in the New York City region. Now they say it's a virus never before seen in this hemisphere and that birds flying south may have spread it to a far wider geographic region.

Health officials in one New Jersey county started spraying mosquitoes today.

Thirty-seven people have tested positive for the West Nile-like virus, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and state health officials said Monday. Many patients -- including the four who died -- original were thought to have St. Louis encephalitis.

Viral Pneumonia Suspected in 6 Deaths at Massachusetts Facility

The Nando Times Tue. Sept. 28 -- (NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts) State health officials blame a germ they suspect of being a form of viral pneumonia for the deaths of five children and an adult at a home for the chronically ill and disabled. But the state Health Department discounted the possibility of any serious danger to the surrounding community Tuesday.

AIDS Pandemic Seen Worsening Next Century

Reuters September 29, 1999 -- (BOSTON) Unless the search for a cure for AIDS accelerates or preventive methods improve, the worst of the HIV epidemic has yet to come, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases predicted Wednesday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, said "what began as a handful of recognized cases among homosexual men in the United States has become a global pandemic of such proportions that it clearly ranks as one of the most destructive microbial scourges in history."

"Unless methods of prevention, with or without a vaccine, are successful, the worst of the global pandemic will occur in the 21st century," he said.

In the United States, the number of new HIV cases each year has leveled off at 40,000 people, half of them under 25.

However, the number of new cases elsewhere is growing at an alarming rate.

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Found in Rural Communities

Reuters Thu. September 30, 1999 -- (SAN FRANCISCO) A drug-resistant form of bacteria has been found in rural Native American communities, demonstrating that so-called superbugs are moving out of their hospital breeding grounds and into the community, researchers said Wednesday.

They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) had been found in Minnesota, among Native Americans living in the countryside.

Barbara Murray, an infectious disease expert at the University of Texas in Houston, said the report added to evidence that MRSA was no longer a problem in hospitals alone.

"This reports it in rural American Indian communities -- so it is out there in the real world," she told reporters.

CNN October 5, 1999 reported: "A moderate 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook the southwestern coast of Turkey early on Tuesday, and according to early reports, more than a dozen people were injured, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. Most of the injured were hurt when they leapt from the balconies of their homes in panic, Anatolian said. The quake struck shortly before 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) and was centered near the popular tourist resort of Marmaris. On August 17, a massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake killed more than 14,000 people in Turkey, and left thousands of buildings in Istanbul and other cities uninhabitable. A number of smaller quakes and tremors have followed the larger one. Thousands of people slept outdoors, fearing that the buildings they lived in might collapse..."

Associated Press September 30, 1999 reported this afternoon: "A strong earthquake rocked southern Mexico on Thursday, toppling church towers and old homes in Oaxaca and shaking buildings in the capital. At least eight people were killed and an unknown number injured. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 and it was centered 275 miles southeast of Mexico City, the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. said. It hit at about 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. EDT). Moderate damage was reported in Oaxaca City, the state capital, where church steeples and many homes collapsed. 'The world is coming to an end!' a secretary screamed as she and dozens of others ran out of the state legislature building after the 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. EDT) quake. The temblor lasted for several minutes..."

Associated Press September 30, 1990 reported: "President Jamil Mahuad made an aerial inspection of a smoldering volcano's Wednesday, hours after it spewed ash on outlying areas of Quito. Quito has been under an alert since Monday night to guard against an eruption of the Guagua Pichincha volcano. Houses, trees and cars in the capital's southern district were blanketed white with silty ash spit up by the volcano during a brief eruption just before midnight Tuesday. 'There was no explosion,' geophysical scientist Darwin Villagomez said. Many city residents in the affected areas walked the streets Wednesday morning with their faces covered by surgical masks and handkerchiefs. Officials have downplayed the danger to Quito in the face of a major eruption...Because Guagua Pichincha's crater faces away from Quito, any eruption would burst north, west and south, sparing the capital city, authorities say..."

The South China Morning Post September 28, 1999 reported: "The seventh typhoon of the year struck yesterday, making it the busiest storm season for 35 years. Typhoon Cam, which forced the hoisting of the No 8 signal for nine hours, brought little of the damage inflicted by its predecessor, Typhoon York, although the races were cancelled, transport disrupted and 23 people injured. Cam had wind speeds of 72km/h compared to 140km/h for York, which killed two people and injured close to 500 on September 16. Cam was the fifth storm requiring the No 8 signal this year. The No 9 signal has been up twice - on June 7, for Maggie, and again for York, which also needed a No 10. Not since 1964 have there been so many signals..."

BBC September 26, 1999 The reported today: "Scientists have warned that water levels at North America's Great Lakes are at their worst this century. Experts at a conference examining the state of the lakes blame climactic factors such as global warming for most of the problem. But they say the remaining water must be protected from being sold in bulk volumes. The bottled water industry, in particular, is coming under scrutiny. The scientists from seven American states and two Canadian provinces say water levels are lower than the North American drought of the 1930s. They say these low levels were not predicted to occur for another 50 years. Ships are increasingly having to find ports with deeper water to dispense their goods. Dredging canals is costing the region millions of dollars..."

Deadly Aftershock in Taiwan

Earth Alert September 27, 1999 -- At least three people were killed and 58 others injured when quake-ravaged Taiwan was shaken by a magnitude 6.5 aftershock on Sunday at 7:53 a.m. local time. Area residents fled from their homes to the safety of open spaces, many of them donning protective motorcycle helmets.

Sunday's quake was an aftershock of the magnitude 7.6 temblor which struck last Tuesday, leaving more than 2,000 people dead.

Twenty island residents were buried under the rubble jarred loose by the latest quake. Two of the victims died when their car was buried by a landslide triggered by the aftershock in the central Taiwan county of Yunlin.


Turkey Shaken Again

Earth Alert Mon. Sept. 27 -- A magnitude 4.5 earthquake rattled southeastern Turkey Saturday night, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Many residents in the affected area spent the night outdoors in fear of a stronger quake.

On August 17, a massive magnitude 7.4 temblor rocked northwestern Turkey, killing at least 15,756 people.


Iran Shaken by Quakes

Earth Alert September 27, 1999 -- At least 14 people were injured when a magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled Iran's southern Gulf Coast area of Bushehr last Friday evening. The tremor caused significant damage to a number of homes in several communities throughout the area. All of those injured were from Ali Hosseini, near the port city.

A separate magnitude 4.3 tremor rumbled through the area of Shiraz in southern Iran at 1:26 p.m. local time on Saturday. There were no reports of injuries or damage from that quake.


Quake Rattles Death Valley

News Max Mon. Sept. 27 -- A 4.3-magnitude quake has struck a remote area near the California-Nevada border, but there are no reports of injury or damage.


More Snakebite Reports After Floyd

United Press International September 28, 1999 -- (CHARLOTTE, North Carolina) Reports of snakebite are on the rise in eastern North Carolina as the creatures have been forced to seek higher ground because of flooding from Hurricane Floyd.

State medical experts predict a rising number bites and injuries from displaced reptiles over the next few weeks.

"We've been seeing about a two- or threefold increase in the number of reports of snakebite from our poison center system-wide," a spokesman for the Carolina Poison Control Center in Charlotte, N.C., said Monday.

Major Aftershocks Jolt Taiwan

Earth Alert September 28, 1999 -- A magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolted the eastern region of Nantou County in central Taiwan Province on Monday at 7:55 p.m. local time. The quake was an aftershock of last week's destructive temblor.

The tremor followed four strong magnitude 5.0 aftershocks which occurred at intervals between noon and 5:30 p.m.


Solomon Islands Shaken

Earth Alert September 28, 1999 -- A magnitude 5.6 earthquake rumbled through the Solomon Islands on Monday just before noon, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was the second to hit the region in three months. A magnitude 6.3 tremor struck the area 35 miles (56 km) off the west coast of Bougainville Island, between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, on July 9. There were no reports of damage from that quake.


Massive Earthquake Rattles Southern Mexico; at Least 8 Dead

CNN Thu. Sept. 30 -- (MEXICO CITY) A powerful earthquake rocked central and southern Mexico Thursday afternoon, killing at least eight people, ripping the facades from buildings and spreading panic through Mexico City.

Eight people were crushed under crumbling walls and an undetermined number were injured in the southern state of Oaxaca, one of the poorest regions of Mexico.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.4, according to the National Seismology Institute in Mexico city. The U.S. Geological Survey had earlier rated the preliminary magnitude at 7.5.


Ecuador: Mild Earthquake Hits Quito as Volcano Stirs

Reuters September 30, 1999 -- A mild earthquake with magnitude 3.7 hit Ecuador's capital Quito Thursday in what authorities said was a clear sign of intense activity inside the nearby Guagua Pichincha volcano, which they said could blow within days or weeks.


Indonesia Rocked by Quake

Earth Alert October 1, 1999 -- A magnitude 5.6 earthquake rumbled across Indonesia's eastern spice islands at noon on Wednesday, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Downpours Cause New Flooding in North Carolina

Associated Press Tue. Sept. 28 -- (RALEIGH, North Carolina) Six inches of rain kicked off new flooding today in an area already devastated by Hurricane Floyd's inundation, washing out roads and a spillway. People were urged to evacuate two residential areas.


Ecuador Volcano Threatens To Erupt

Associated Press September 29, 1999 -- (QUITO, Ecuador) Residents of Ecuador's capital on Tuesday swarmed stores and supermarkets to buy bottled water, canned food and flashlights after authorities warned that the nearby Guagua Pichincha volcano could erupt within a matter of days.


Flooding in Central America Shows No Sign of Ending

The Nando Times September 29, 1999 -- (TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras) The death toll from 17 days of flooding caused by torrential rain in Honduras has risen to 13 and the storms show no sign of ending, the government said Tuesday. Flooding also hit Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica.


Reunion Island Volcanic Explosion

Associated Press September 29, 1999 -- Piton de la Fournaise Volcano on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion erupted again on Tuesday for the second time in two months.

The explosion sent a plume of volcanic ash and smoke billowing into the skies over Reunion. Witnesses reported lava shooting 164 feet (50 m) into the air from two new rifts on the slopes of the volcano.


Sea of Galilee 'in the Red' for the First Time Since Establishment of Israel

Arutz-7 Daily News (Israel) September 30, 1999 -- For the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, the level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) has fallen below the "red line" - 213 meters below sea level. The record low is chiefly a result of scarce rainfall last year, but the heat wave of the past few days sped up the process. The "red line" was set by hydrologists in order to ensure that the quality of Kinneret water is not harmed, but immediate damage is not foreseen. Water experts demand that alternative water sources be found immediately. Approximately one third of Israel's water supply comes from the Kinneret and its sources in the region of the Golan Heights.


Brush Fire Threatens California Town

USA Today October 1, 1999 -- (CORONA, California) Two hundred families were evacuated from their homes Thursday afternoon after strong winds swept a brush fire to within half a mile of Corona. The blaze had scorched 250 acres of brush and citrus groves, damaged at least two homes and was still out of control Thursday evening about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, said a Riverside County fire department spokeswoman. Air tankers and helicopters were dropping fire retardant and water, but officials couldn't say when the fire might be contained.

Y2K and Tribulation Technology

"…he (anti-Christ) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and enslaved, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, except he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."… Revelation 13:16-17

Why You Should Get A Chip Implant

MSNBC September 27, 1999 -- How'd you like to avoid waiting in lines for the rest of your life? Breeze through everywhere like you owned the place. Watch lights snap on, doors open automatically, money pop out of ATMs as you approach. Never have to show an ID, buy a ticket, carry keys, remember a password. You'd leave stores loaded with packages and waltz right past the cashiers. You wouldn't have to carry a wallet. Ever. Family and friends could find you instantly in any crowd.

There's only one catch--you'd need to have a tiny little chip implanted in your body. No big deal. Just ask Kevin Warwick, a British professor who had a silicon-based transponder surgically inserted into his forearm last year.

You'd think from all the attention that the natty professor was jacking chips into his brain like some cheese-ball sci-fi android. Truth is, his modest implant simply turned him into a walking EZ-Pass.

Warwick's gizmo--a coil of wire and a few chips embedded in a small glass capsule about a tenth of an inch wide and a little less than an inch long--generates a 64-bit number when zapped by an RF transmitter. A receiver then looks it up in a database.

Goodbye Wallet; Hello Chip

Wired News Fri. October 1, 1999 -- Start with a key chain, or maybe a signet ring.
Implant a little credit card information, add a driver's license, a couple of frequent flyer cards, and maybe throw in a biometric sensing device.

Presto: The wallet of the future. Toss out your leather case and fulfill all your buying and personal identification needs with the swipe of microchip.

At least that's the vision Visa International CEO Malcolm Williamson was pitching to financial services types gathered in San Francisco this week.

At the Jupiter Financial Services Forum -- a conference on emerging technologies -- Williamson talked about how credit card companies are using advances in chip technology to store vast amounts of data in tiny, portable devices.

"Chip technology is the key to realizing the much talked-about Holy Grail of anytime-anywhere access," Williamson said, painting the traditional wallet as an example of an old-world accessory ripe for replacement.

"I would love to get rid of this," Williamson said, holding up his own overstuffed leather one at a prompt in his notes that said "hold up wallet."

CNN September 30, 1999 -- China this week introduced its latest miniature weapon -- a helicopter barely the size of a wasp that can be used for spy missions. The state-run Xinhua news agency said it weighed 35 ounces and was powered by an alternating current motor. At 0.12 inches wide, 0.2 inches tall and 0.7 inches long -- and with the ability to take off and land in a space the size of two peanuts -- it is thought to be the world's smallest aircraft. It was developed by researches at Shanghai's Jiatong University using special materials, micro-machining techniques, electronics and aerodynamics. Xinhua said only that it was "expected to be used for reconnaissance."

Reuters October 4, 1999 reported: "Computer networks used by government and business are increasingly at risk of severe disruption, and the federal government is not doing enough about the threat, congressional investigators said in a report to be made public Monday. Security shortcomings jeopardize national defense, tax collection, law enforcement and air traffic control among other key operations, the non-partisan General Accounting Office said in a draft obtained by Reuters. ‘At the federal level, these risks are not being adequately addressed,’ said the GAO, the investigative and audit arm of Congress. The report was prepared for Robert Bennett, the Utah Republican who heads the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem. The number of security incidents handled by Carnegie Mellon University's CERT Coordination Center, a federally funded emergency response team, has risen from 1,334 in 1993 to 4,398 during the first half of this year, the report said…It cited ‘even greater concerns’ of some experts about private-sector systems that control energy, telecommunications, financial services, transportation and other vital services. ‘Few reports are publicly available about the effectiveness of controls over privately controlled systems,’ GAO said. It added that private entities were ‘understandably reluctant’ to disclose vulnerabilities that might undercut customer confidence. ‘Our nation's computer-based critical infrastructures are at increasing risk of severe disruption,’ it said, citing threats from hackers to terrorists to governments capable of computer-based ‘information warfare.’"

Wired News October 2, 1999 reported: "Two biomedical engineers claim to have created the first 'superhuman' speech recognition system following a breakthrough in neural network technology. Researchers at the University of Southern California say they have developed a system markedly better than people at recognizing spoken speech. If the claims pan out, the system may herald a new era of neural network computing, which has languished for a decade after failing to deliver on the promise of software that mimics human intelligence...Developed by biomedical engineering professor Theodore Berger and Jim-Shih Liaw, director of the university's Laboratory for Neural Dynamics, the Berger-Liaw Neural Network Speaker Independent Speech Recognition System (SRS) for the first time displayed better-than-human performance in word recognition tests..."

Reuters October 1, 1999 reported: "Malicious changes to computer code under the guise of Year 2000 software fixes has begun to surface in some U.S. work undertaken by foreign contractors, the top U.S. cyber cop said Thursday. ‘We have some indications that this is happening' in a possible foreshadowing of economic and security headaches stemming from Y2K fixes, Michael Vatis of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told Reuters. Vatis heads the interagency National Infrastructure Protection Center (NPIC), responsible for detecting and deterring cyber attacks on networks that drive U.S. finance, transport, telecommunications and other vital sectors. A Central Intelligence Agency officer assigned to the NIPC said recently that India and Israel appeared to be the ‘most likely sources of malicious remediation’ of U.S. software. ‘India and Israel appear to be the countries whose governments or industry may most likely use their access to implant malicious code in light of their assessed motive, opportunity and means,’ the CIA officer, Terrill Maynard, wrote in the June issue of Infrastructure Protection Digest. Significant amounts of Y2K repair is also being done for U.S. companies by contractors in Ireland, Pakistan and the Philippines, according to Maynard. But they appear among the ‘least likely’ providers to jeopardize U.S. corporate or government system integrity, although the possibility cannot be ruled out, he wrote. Thousands of companies in the United States and elsewhere have contracted out system upgrades to cope with the Y2K glitch, which could scramble computers starting Jan. 1 when 1999 gives way to 2000..."

The London Times October 1, 1999 reported today: "NASA scientists are developing a robot ‘Man Friday’ to help astronauts on the International Space Station. The Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) - the size and shape of a small melon - will hover around its master, propelled by fans through the gravity-free space station, taking messages, offering advice and fixing problems. Equipped with infra-red cameras, microphones, speakers and sensors, the PSA is designed to tackle a variety of tasks: acting as a link to Earth, checking for gas leaks, changing pressure or oxygen levels, taking photographs, reminding the astronauts of terrestrial wedding anniversaries and patrolling corridors for floating socks. The PSA responds instantly to voice commands, never counts overtime and is prepared to face extreme danger on behalf of the boss. 'When fire broke out on the Mir space station, it would have been nice to have a PSA to send into the area to see what was going on,' Yuri Gawdiak, principal engineer on the project at Nasa's Ames research centre in California, said. The PSA does require a form of lunch break. The space station will need docking ports, where the robot can recharge its batteries..."

Fox News September 30, 1999 reported: "Thirty-four nations whose airports handled 1 million passengers traveling to and from the United States last year have yet to report on steps taken to remedy possible Y2K computer problems, the Transportation Department inspector general says. Lack of information is also worrisome closer to home, Inspector General Kenneth Mead said in testimony to be delivered Thursday to the Senate special panel on the Y2K problem. He said that while air carriers handling 95 percent of passenger and cargo services in the United States say they will be Y2K-ready at the end of September, 1,900 smaller carriers out of 3,300 air carriers did not respond to a Federal Aviation Administration survey. Y2K-related failures or disruptions are likely to be isolated local events in this country, Mead said, but ‘we are disappointed at the lack of information concerning the readiness of many smaller providers.’..."

Wired News September 30, 1999 reported: "...Last week, the Economist pointed out that despite being the world's second-largest industrial economy, Japan lags in Y2K preparedness behind, among others, Thailand and Chile. As a result, a number of Western tech workers are predicting chaos. Others are tsk-tsking that the compliance tests should all have been conducted months earlier. ‘All the fundamental services like banks and power stations are issuing press releases saying they are ready, the tests are over,’ said Terrie Lloyd, publisher of Computing Japan -- a Tokyo based Internet magazine. ‘But it is kind of interesting that most of the infrastructures like air traffic control systems, the traffic signals ... the Tokyo power board, and the Bank of Japan are going to have literally thousands of people on standby [on 31 December]. ‘The regional banks like Hokkaido and Surega may not be ready either. Twenty percent of hospitals are compliant. Twenty percent said they are not wanting to be compliant,’ said Lloyd. But Lloyd contends the biggest clue that things aren't looking good is that no one is issuing compliance certificates. ‘I think that they are testing stuff but at the same time no one's prepared to say they comply,’ Lloyd said in a phone interview..."

World Net Daily September 29, 1999 columnist Susan Foster’s article today Strange Bedfellows Battle National ID - Groups Mobilize to Repeal Law Mandating Card relates the efforts of various groups to stop the implementation of a defacto national ID card for all Americans by Oct. 2000. Her article begins: "It's not often you find groups as far apart politically as the American Civil Liberties Union, La Raza, Eagle Forum and Concerned Women of America on the same side of an issue. But these organizations and others -- such as the Conference of State Legislatures, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Free Congress Foundation -- are united in a broad-based coalition from across the political spectrum to force repeal of an obscure section of an immigration law Congress passed three years ago, which provides a provision for turning state driver's licenses into what these critics claim is a national identification card. Section 626 (b) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibilities Act of 1996 requires states to collect, verify and display social security numbers on state-issued driver's licenses and conform with federally-mandated uniform features for driver's licenses. It authorizes the federal Department of Transportation to establish national requirements for birth certificates and driver's licenses. The Illegal Immigration Reform Act -- with Section 626 (b) -- is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, 2000..."

The Washington Post September 28, 1999 reported yesterday: "For Tim Sayers, the technology director for a chain of Washington and Baltimore sporting goods stores, Y2K fixes will cost about $30,000. For Jeff Hawk, who runs a metalsmithing operation in Montana, it meant spending $75,000 on a new computer system. But both were willing to pay, knowing that the investment in identifying and fixing year 2000 systems glitches now is small, compared with fixing them later. That's the message that came out of the White House this week. Worried that up to 800,000 small businesses nationwide do not intend to check their computers for potential year 2000 problems, the White House's Y2K trouble-shooter warned Wednesday that small companies adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude toward Y2K may be putting themselves in economic jeopardy...’It is not too late to start to get Y2K-ready,’ said John A. Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. ‘There is great risk in waiting.’ Koskinen said companies that wait to see which systems malfunction because of Y2K may find themselves ‘at the end of a very long line’ as they try to obtain software repairs and upgrades following the calendar change to 2000. Small businesses could wait days or weeks for the computer fixes to be made and, if faced with cash-flow problems, may find themselves forced to close, he said..."

Time Magazine -- Cash is headed for a whole new dimension. MasterCard has invested millions in the development of an E-cash system called Mondex. Smart Mondex cards have tiny embedded microchips that can store not only electronic dollars but also five other types of currency, an abbreviated medical history and even a personalized electronic "key" that can open everything from your apartment to your office. Says Henry Mundt, MasterCard executive vice president for global access: "The chip that we are putting on the card now will form the platform for the ultimate in remote access for consumers to their funds, anytime, anywhere. What we really see happening in the future is consumers being able to design their cards to meet their individual needs. We refer to that as moving more toward life-style cards." E-cash is already everywhere, from highway tolls to subways.

Wired News September 25, 1999 reported: "The computer systems of 450 school districts will not be ready for the Year 2000, Acting Deputy Secretary of Education Marshall Smith reported to Congress 21 September. Smith testified that 3 percent of all school districts are currently reporting an inability to complete all necessary work before the new millennium, but that number may rise as high as 5 percent. There is the ‘very real possibility that Y2K related disruptions could affect millions of students,’ Smith said. Much of the problem in Y2K preparation comes from embedded microchips, computer chips that help operate school infrastructure, such as heating systems, elevators, and fire safety systems. The Department of Education official explained that many school districts may be overlooking these items or having trouble fixing them, because the companies that made the original product have gone out of business. ‘While [Y2K] failures would be unlikely to have an immediate impact on teaching and learning in the classroom, the potentially negative effects in such areas as building safety, student records, and student financial aid could disrupt the education of significant numbers of students,’ Smith said. These problems may have the biggest effect in large school districts enrolling more than 25,000 students. According to Smith, large districts account for roughly 17 million school children, but only 16 percent of these districts had reported Y2K compliance as of June..."

The London Guardian September 24, 1999 reported: "The millennium bug could wreak havoc with the economies of developing countries, slashing growth, pushing up inflation and triggering large-scale capital flight, the International Monetary Fund warned. The fund's chief economist, Michael Mussa, said that it was planning to introduce a special Y2K facility to help countries through possible financial crises. ‘This is a question we take very seriously,’ he said. Although the fund believes that most countries are relatively well prepared, its worst-case scenario envisages a temporary slowdown in growth of two percentage points, a one-point increase in inflation and a 15 per cent drop in foreign reserves. According to an IMF study of 17 countries accounting for 60 per cent of GDP in developing economies, the biggest risks are to power generation systems and distribution sectors, where ‘exposure is relatively high but preparations appear to be relatively weak’. Although the IMF plays down suggestions of chaos on financial markets in the new year, it does not discount the possibility that this could occur in some, less-prepared countries..."

Reuters September 23, 1999 reported: "The Year 2000 computer glitch is likely to rock world trade and may end more than eight straight years of US economic growth, a special Senate panel studying the problem said Wednesday. In a report marking 100 days left to the year change, the bipartisan Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem said it was also ‘extremely concerned’ about Y2K's impact on longer-term national security and strategic interests. Severe long- and short-term disruptions to supply chains are ‘likely to occur’ as a result of Y2K-related system failures, the panel said in its 288-page final report. ‘Such disruptions may cause a low-to-moderate downturn in the economy, particularly in industries that depend on foreign suppliers,’ it said. The US economy, a locomotive for the world, has been expanding since March 1991. The committee listed its greatest concerns as China, Russia, and Italy, plus a handful of US oil suppliers: Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, and Kuwait..."

The Sunday Times -- Lloyd's, Britain's leading insurance market, is turning to astrology amid fears that a planetary conjunction in 2000 could force huge payouts. Some underwriters believe the phenomenon could herald a spate of worldwide natural disasters.

Solar Flares Could Cause More Havoc Than Y2K

22+++++

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