News for April 13, 2005

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Mexican Army Escorts Border Drug-runners - The Mexican army is escorting those attempting to cross over the U.S. border illegally – including known drug-runners – to areas not patrolled by the Minuteman Project near Naco, Ariz., say Border Patrol sources and other officials including a U.S. congressman. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, denounced the action by the Mexican military and called on President Bush to do the same.

Indonesian Volcano Spews Ash, Sparking New Disaster Panic - A volcano coughed into life Tuesday on Indonesia‚s disaster-blighted island of Sumatra, spreading new panic in the wake of the recent tsunami and earthquakes and prompting thousands to flee their homes. more...

Patriot Act: Facts Emerge from the Shadows - TIME ISN’T EASING concerns over the enhanced law-enforcement powers of the USA Patriot Act, judging by the debate that's firing up on Capitol Hill over the renewal of its expiring provisions. President Bush calls the Patriot Act an invaluable tool in the war on terror, but, until last week, little was known about where, why or how often the law has been applied. At the same time, confusion persists over what the law actually does. Critics sometimes conflate Patriot Act provisions with other controversial moves, such as indefinite detentions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that have nothing to do with the act. Two weeks ago, Montana became the fifth state to pass a resolution critical of the Act. Since 2001, more than 375 local governments have passed resolutions criticizing the law or declaring “civil liberties safe zones” in a bid to discourage cooperation with the law. more...

Woolly Mammoth Resurrection, “Jurassic Park” Planned - A team of Japanese genetic scientists aims to bring woolly mammoths back to life and create a Jurassic Park-style refuge for resurrected species. The effort has garnered new attention as a frozen mammoth is drawing crowds at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan (see photo). The team of scientists, which is not associated with the exhibit, wants to do more than just put a carcass on display. They aim to revive the Ice Age plant-eaters, 10,000 years after they went extinct.

Their plan: to retrieve sperm from a mammoth frozen in tundra, use it to impregnate an elephant, and then raise the offspring in a safari park in the Siberian wild.

PM calls on Bush For More Pressure Against Iran - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented President George W. Bush with the latest Israeli intelligence assessments of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and called on Bush to step up the diplomatic efforts to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb. more...

Iran nuke commercial hits TV markets - A commercial produced by an organization fighting for the freedom of Iran that depicts a nuclear terror attack in America – the kind many experts believe is possible should Tehran get the bomb – will run in 20 markets across the country this month. Titled “An Atomic 9-11: When Evil is Appeased,” the spot, sponsored by the Iran Freedom Foundation, is based on a scenario described in the new WND Books release “Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians,” by Jerome R. Corsi, co-author of the best-selling “Unfit for Command.” The ad can be viewed on the IFF website. more...

Israel presents aerial photos of Iran nuclear sites to Bush - Ariel Sharon’s military attaché presented aerial photos of Iranian nuclear installations during the Israeli prime minister’s summit with US President George W. Bush, Israeli public radio reported on Tuesday. more...

Hailstones ‘as big as eggs’ kill 18 - A hailstorm in Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality has left 18 dead, one person missing and 25 injured, the People's Daily reported yesterday. more...

Israel warns U.S. it will retaliate against anticipated fall offensive World Tribune (Apr 7, 2005) - The Israel military has been preparing for a resurgence of the Palestinian war. The military’s Central Command has drafted plans for an intense campaign with Palestinian insurgents in the fall of 2005. Military sources said Central Command envisioned the fighting to begin as early as September 2005 when the army withdraws from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, Middle East Newsline reported.

“The message is that once we withdraw from Gaza, everything will be back to where it started, except the Palestinians will be stronger,” a military source said. “Right now, the Palestinian groups agree that it's worth keeping quiet for a while to ensure an Israeli withdrawal over the next few months.” more...

Sharon: Israel on Eve of ‘Civil War’ - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested the Jewish state is in crisis and appears to be on the “eve of a civil war” as his government moves to remove 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. In his most ominous comments about the level of tension in his country as it seeks to end Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip later this summer, Sharon said his government’s decision is meeting angry resistance. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Sharon – in Crawford, Texas Monday for talks with President Bush – told correspondent David Gregory point-blank he expects settlers to rebel “before and during” the withdrawal. “One should not underestimate the tension here, the atmosphere here. It looks like on the eve of a civil war,” Sharon said. more...

Global opinion: Let Europe lead the world - A majority of 23,000 people sampled around the world want Europe to be more influential than the United States in world affairs, according to a survey released yesterday. Among the people surveyed in 23 countries, 58 percent said Europe becoming more influential than America in world affairs would be “mainly positive.” The highest number was in Spain, with 81 percent. Germany followed with 79 percent. In contrast, only 34 percent of Americans said they favored a more powerful role for Europe than the United States. Instead, more than half said they thought European over U.S. prominence would be mainly negative. more...

Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength - A Robot suit has been developed that could help older people or those with disabilities to walk or lift heavy objects. Dubbed HAL, or hybrid assistive limb, the latest versions of the suit will be unveiled this June at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan, which opened last month. A commercial product is slated for release by the end of the year. HAL is the result of 10 years’ work by Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and integrates mechanics, electronics, bionics and robotics in a new field known as cybernics. The most fully developed prototype, HAL 3, is a motor-driven metal “exoskeleton” that you strap onto your legs to power-assist leg movements. A backpack holds a computer with a wireless network connection, and the batteries are on a belt. Two control systems interact to help the wearer stand, walk and climb stairs. A “bio-cybernic” system uses bioelectric sensors attached to the skin on the legs to monitor signals transmitted from the brain to the muscles. It can do this because when someone intends to stand or walk, the nerve signal to the muscles generates a detectable electric current on the skin’s surface. These currents are picked up by the sensors and sent to the computer, which translates the nerve signals into signals of its own for controlling electric motors at the hips and knees of the exoskeleton. It takes a fraction of a second for the motors to respond accordingly, and in fact they respond fractionally faster to the original signal from the brain than the wearer’s muscles do. more...

World Leaders Tribute To Pope Invokes End Times Type And Shadow - The massive numbers of world leaders flocking to Rome to mourn the loss of Pope John Paul II has been called unprecedented by historians and journalists alike, and invokes a type and shadow of the one-world religion as prophesied in the end-time Bible book of Revelation. 

The picture of five non-Catholic U.S. dignitaries - U.S. President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - bowing down in prayer before the deceased body of the Pope is an unprecedented scene in world history and shows how the world can be united under one religion by a powerful man whose mantra was world peace. 

“It is extremely rare throughout American history for an American president to go to a funeral of any foreign dignitary…no American president has ever gone to a papal funeral before,” said Allan Lightman, professor of American history and presidential historian, in an interview with ABC News. “It was considered quite a situation in 1995 when then president Bill Clinton went to the funeral of slain Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, but it was not this kind of extraordinary delegation of a sitting president, former presidents and a first lady. Look, the Pope has strode like a colossus over the late 20th and 21st Century. And here we have the greatest spiritual leader of our time being paid homage by, of course, the most powerful, political and material leader of the world George W. Bush.”

Leaders from nearly every major country in the world (except China), including Arab nations, the Palestinian Authority and royal families are slated to attend the Pope’s funeral. This includes radical Islam, European Protestants, the United Nations, Buddhists and Hindus who have already paid homage by attending viewings and praying for the deceased pope. Most all have expressed public sentiments in support of Pope John Paul II, especially how he promoted world peace in countries across the globe. For example, Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad expressed fond memories of the Pope, who often demanded that Israel give up land for peace. Hamas officially mourned the Pope as a “great man of peace.” Palestinian Authority President Mohmaud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei said the Pope supported the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital city.

Revelation 13:4 speaks of a one world religion where all will worship the anti-Christ and the false prophet, “So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” Pope John Paul II was neither the anti-Christ nor “the” false prophet. But there is a type and shadow in his death. All the world is bowing down to him in respect because he came with a simple solution that all peoples and religions should share their beliefs in peace.