News for March 17, 2005

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America’s Explosive Park - Yellowstone National Park sits atop a subterranean chamber of molten rock and gasses so vast that the region, known for its geysers and grizzlies, is arguably one of the largest active volcanoes in the world. Granted, it’s not your typical volcano, either in scale (it’s huge), appearance (it’s a vast depression, not a single mountain) or frequency of eruption (at least hundreds of thousands of years apart). But it is active, and the evidence is everywhere.

East and West, Again - On Saturday the Ukrainian security service announced that former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko shot himself in the head, twice. Does this sound strange? When reading the news from the East, you must use your imagination. No other vehicle is able to carry the Western reader beyond the absurdity of so much “wet work” gone awry. There is no other way to navigate the exasperatingly absurd post-Soviet world.

New Tsunami Fear as Scientists Find Dangerous Stresses on Ocean Floor - Second major earthquake could strike Indian Ocean within a year.

(Sounds like some prophecies I heard of here.)

Saying Israelis are ‘legitimate targets’ not a hate crime - Police have decided not to charge a controversial Muslim leader under Canada’s hate-crime laws for suggesting on a television talk show last fall that all adult Israelis are “legitimate targets” for Palestinian terrorists.

This whole love your fellow man line always seems to end up with the little asterisk at the end with the small print *except the Jews

10,000 Jews to ascend Temple Mount - A grassroots Jewish organization plans to bring 10,000 Jews next month to the heavily restricted Temple Mount to spark Israeli dialogue about reclaiming the holy site from its Muslim custodians. “The Temple Mount is the single holiest place in the world for Jews. It's about time the Israeli government restores it to the Jewish people, where it belongs,” David Ha’ivri, chairman of Revava, the group orchestrating the gathering, told WND.

“The World Loves Dead Jews” - The grassroots Women in Green organization is planning a protest near Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, where world dignitaries will be gathering tonight to mark the opening of a new museum affiliated with Yad Vashem. Among other representatives of nations around the world, United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan will be in attendance. Women in Green chairwomen, Ruth and Nadia Matar, noted, “These are the same world leaders who immorally push Israel to deport Jews from their homes, and make suicidal concessions to Arafat’s successor and loyal follower, the Holocaust denier Abu Mazen.” The activist women are planning to hold signs that read: “The World Loves Dead Jews, but hates proud Jews living in the Land of Israel" and "Deportation of Jews: Never Again!”

Medical Breakthrough--Researchers Force Cancer Cells into Permanent ‘Coma’ - Malignant Cells Can No Longer Divide - by Brian Ferguson / Teresa Neumann Reporting (Mar 16, 2005) The Scotsman reports that researchers at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Surrey have successfully put cancer cells into a permanent “coma” providing a breakthrough alternative to treating cancer. Their findings show that they can switch the mechanism that triggers senescence (meaning cells can no longer divide) back on in cells for malignant melanomas. “The cells stop dividing - and never divide again,” says the report. Dr Colin Goding, who led the research, explains: “When certain genes called oncogenes are activated by mutation, they cause cancer to develop. Many oncogenes control cell growth or cell division. When these are mutated, it’s like the accelerator in a car being jammed on - the cell is continuously getting instructions to divide. In our lifetime of 70 years or so, we get mutations in these genes all the time, but may only get cancer once. That is partly because we are protected by the senescence mechanism. Normal cells sense something is wrong - that the accelerator is jammed on - and put on this brake on cell division called senescence, which means the cell will never divide again. It’s in a coma permanently.”

Single Mom’s Faith in God Helps Bring Atlanta Manhunt to Peaceful End, “That’s the Only Person Who Helped Me Through” (Mar 14, 2005) Ashley Smith, a Georgia woman whose husband was stabbed to death 4 years ago, credits her faith in God as the source of her amazing strength and clear-minded thinking while being held hostage this weekend by a man who allegedly killed four people in his escape from a courthouse on Friday.

U.S. Carrier Groups Converging in the Middle East? - (Mar. 12, 2005) The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is on the move in Atlantic Ocean and is possibly headed towards the Mediterranean Sea. The convergence of three carrier groups in the corridor of the Middle East will send very strong message to the Syrians and Iranians.

Israel Prepares For War With Syria - Israel’s military has been preparing for the increasing prospect of a war with Syria in a confrontation expected to include Iran and Hizbullah. The General Staff has discussed an assessment by the military’s Northern Command of an emerging threat from Syria and Hizbullah over the next year. Northern Command said a weakened Syria, under pressure from the United States to withdraw from Lebanon, was likely to approve an Iranian-Hizbullah campaign against Israel.

Seafloor earthquakes may signal eruption off Vancouver Island - By Sandi Doughton (March 05, 2005) Mount St. Helens may not be the only Northwest volcano spitting out lava these days. A scientific SWAT team from Seattle is sailing this afternoon for a spot off the coast of Vancouver Island, where they suspect an underwater eruption is under way. “We really don’t know what to expect,” said Edward Baker, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “If we’re very lucky, we may get pictures of brand-new lava on the seafloor.”