News for October 24, 2005

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5.9 Magnitude Earthquake Shook Izmir (October 24, 2005) - An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale occurred in the Aegean Sea off the cost of Seferihisar Township in Aegean city of Izmir early on Friday. The Kandilli earthquake observation centre said the quake, which occurred at 0:40 a.m. (2140 GMT), measured 5.9 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Seferihisar. The quake was also felt in Canakkale, Manisa, Akhisar, Bergama, and Soma. Residents of Izmir rushed to streets in panic. It was reported that one person, Gungor Yaylali (68) died in hospital because of heart attack during the quake. It was also reported that 19 people who jumped out of the windows of their houses in panic were injured and hospitalized. Koksal’s office said schools recessed for one day after the quake. Meanwhile, officials of Security Department of Urla, a township of Izmir, stated that roofs of three abandoned houses partly collapsed. Five aftershocks occurred after the main shock. more...

France’s former Socialist leader hits at backers of globalization (October 24, 2005) - Lionel Jospin, France’s most recent Socialist prime minister, has denounced a “new caste” of financiers, industrialists, top civil servants and privileged journalists for promoting globalization at the expense of ordinary workers. In a new book, widely seen as a manifesto for a possible presidential bid in 2007, Mr. Jospin attacks this modern aristocracy for placing economic efficiency above all other values. “This group urges other social categories to make sacrifices in the name of global competition or a balanced economy but does not accept that it has to make any effort or give anything up itself and does not even accept that the question applies to itself, “he writes. “Economic rationality is the response to everything. One cannot touch profits, increase capital taxes or limit extravagant salaries without discouraging initiative and paralyzing creative energies, without provoking disinvestment or relocation of enterprises or without driving away brains and talents.” Mr. Jospin’s attack adds to the anti-globalization groundswell across the political spectrum in France. Yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading presidential candidate from the right, also criticized the liberalizing trade agenda of the European Commission, saying the EU must do more to protect its own economic interests. more...

‘Satanism flourishing in Russia’ (October 24, 2005) - Satanism is running rampant throughout Russia, according to a priest at a Murmansk church defaced by vandals. Earlier this month, according to an Interfax report, the Church of the Savior-on-the-Waters, built in memory of lost seamen was targeted with Satanic symbols and animal blood. “We are alarmed with the increased activity of the Satanists in the city,” said Rev. Andrei, the rector of the Orthodox church. “We think that they perpetrated the sacrilege of the church.” The priest said young people with inverted crosses on their breasts were often observed in the church. “Satanism is flourishing in our country and can be seen not only in the painting of church buildings by young people,” said the priest. “For example, a cross has been erected recently on the hill in Vidyaevo (a military settlement of the North Fleet submariners), but was sacriliged the next day.” Authorities said investigations are proceeding, but that the lack of witnesses will make prosecution difficult.

Israeli dig to spark Temple Mount violence? (October 24, 2005) - A senior Al Aqsa leader whose group has been accused of associations with Hamas told WorldNetDaily yesterday recent Israeli digs near the Temple Mount and a plan to construct an underground visitors center near the Western Wall are really Jewish designs to destroy the mosque, potentially sparking deadly riots. The group, which has previously been involved with Temple Mount violence, has been sending buses the past few weeks to Israeli Arab neighborhoods asking Muslims to “swarm” the Al Aqsa Mosque to protect it from “Jewish attacks,” WND has learned. “The truth is these digs and plans are political in character and goal. It is part of the Israeli occupation and of the Israeli big plan to hurt Al Aqsa,” Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, told WND. “These diggings endanger the basis of the mosque. The Israelis want and hope that these works will contribute and hasten the destruction of the mosque. In that way they think they will not be accused that they have directly destroyed Al Aqsa.” Hatib was responding to a new archeological site near the Mount recently unveiled by Israel, and Israeli plans announced last month to open an underground tourist center that will snake around pathways under the Western Wall. Discoveries at the new site include a ritual bath from the period of the second Jewish Temple, destroyed in 70 AD, and a wall archaeologists say dates to the first Jewish Temple, destroyed in 586 BC The findings were widely reported by the media as strengthening Jewish ties to the Temple Mount. more...

Is Osama the Mahdi? (October 23, 2005) - Will the American Hiroshima occur during Ramadan, which ends Nov. 2? Islamic clerics point out that the signs in the heavens are propitious for such an event. This year, Muslims will experience solar and lunar eclipses during the holy month. These great heavenly signs, according to Islamic visionary Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Sahib, foretell the coming of the “Mahdi,” the mighty warrior of the Apocalypse, who will defeat the army of Yajuj wa-Majuj (“the infidel unbelievers”), led by the Dabbah or “the Beast.” He will lead the Muslims to great victory and bring forth the Day of Islam, when all of creation falls before the throne of Allah. Islamic tradition says that the Mahdi will be a descendant of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. He will have a distinctive forehead, a prominent nose, and a black mole on his face. He will arise from Arabia and will be called from a cave by Allah to serve as the savior of all true believers. Osama bin Laden has the high forehead, the prominent nose, and the black mole. He hails from Arabia and received his calling from a cave in Afghanistan. Bin Laden speaks of the president of the United States as Dabbah, the beast he must slay, and of the American people as the Yajuj wa-Majuj, the nation of Gog that he must destroy. more...

3.1-Magnitude Quake Hits Off Santa Monica Coast (October 23, 2005) - A small earthquake rattled windows in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica on Saturday. The 3.1-magnitude quake struck at 1:18 p.m., centered 5 miles west-northwest of Santa Monica. Reports say that a worker on the seventh floor of an office building in West Los Angeles felt two jolts that occurred almost simultaneously, NBC4 reported. No injuries or damage were reported.

Police guard churches in Egypt after Muslim riot (October 23, 2005) - Thousands of police manned barricades around Christian churches in Egypt’s second largest city Saturday, a day after Muslim rioters attacked churches and shops, leaving four people dead in the country's worst religious violence in five years. Egyptian anti-riot vehicles and a wrecked car seen Saturday at the site where thousands of Muslims rioted outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria. (AP) Egypt’s top Muslim and Christian leaders appealed for calm as tensions simmered in Alexandria, where some 5,000 Muslim rioters rampaged through two predominantly Christian neighborhoods. Clashes with rubber bullet-firing police killed two rioters and two policemen, police and hospital officials said Saturday. At least 90 people were injured. The violence followed a week of protests over the distribution of a DVD of a play deemed offensive to Muslims. St. George’s Coptic Church, where the play was performed two years ago, was one of the seven churches attacked Friday. The play, entitled I Was Blind But Now I Can See, tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned. Islamic leaders accused Copts of releasing the DVDs and demanded an apology. more...

Evangelicals slam Protestant calls to divest from Israel (October 22, 2005) - Evangelical Christians yesterday criticized efforts by some Christian groups to divest from companies associated with Israel, saying they planned to counter with a campaign to create partnerships between Israel and international businesses. Several Protestant groups, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), have looked into selling stock in companies that profit from Israeli policy in the territories. Companies targeted by the Presbyterian Church include Caterpillar Inc., ITT Industries Inc., Motorola Inc., and United Technologies Corp. The Presbyterians accused the firms of selling products such as night vision equipment, wireless communications and helicopters the Israeli military uses to hurt Palestinians and bolster territorial control. The International Christian Embassy, a Jerusalem-based Evangelical organization, said it was launching a campaign against the divestment moves. The Evangelical groups represented at a news conference yesterday did not provide details about their plans to bring new investment to Israel. President of the International Christian Chamber of Commerce, Dale Neill, said his organization was looking to build a permanent office in Jerusalem to become more involved in the Israeli economy. “We have come to understand that commerce is the lifeblood of any nation,” Neill said. “One of the things that needs to happen - and we’re very actively working on ways to enhance or enable that to happen - is it needs to be easier for small investors... to get that money into the nation and the economy.” Neill said that while his organization was actively seeking new companies to invest in Israel, he was unprepared to name specific businesses that had agreed to participate in the initiative. more...

University to ban Bibles (October 22, 2005) - Edinburgh University in Scotland will begin banning Holy Bibles from its student halls of residence due to concern they are the source of discrimination against students of other faiths. The ban was a response to student association protests as well as an agenda to equally support all faiths, a university spokesman told the Times of London. A Gideon Bible is traditionally placed in the room of all new students, and there are currently about 2,000 bibles in the Pollock Halls campus near Holyrood Park. Gideons International has handed out 63 million Bibles worldwide in places such as hotels, prisons and hospitals. Since the school has students from 120 countries and all different faith backgrounds, officials believe that the distribution of Bibles could be offensive to some students. Ruth Cameron, an advocate of the removal of Bibles from the campus, and the student association president said, “The student association strongly believes in the importance of ensuring that students of all faiths feel at home in their university accommodation,” she said. She also stated that the removal of Bibles is not about attacking Christianity but about “respecting diversity.” more...

Professor: Exterminate white people (October 22, 2005) - A visiting professor at North Carolina State University says the solution to the problems faced by many blacks is the extermination of “white people off the face of the planet.” Kamau Kambon, who taught Africana Studies at the Raleigh school last spring, told a panel at Howard University Law School Oct. 14 this action must be taken “because white people want to kill us,” the Carolina Journal reported. Kambon, a Raleigh activist and bookstore owner, was addressing a panel on “Hurricane Katrina Media Coverage,” broadcast on C-SPAN. Excerpts of the speech can be heard here and the entire event is archived by C-SPAN. Kambon told the audience white people “have retina scans, they have what they call racial profiling, DNA banks, and they’re monitoring our people to try to prevent the one person from coming up with the one idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people, because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem.” The Carolina Journal said Kambon’s remarks received slight applause in the room, to which he responded, “I don’t care whether you clap or not, but I’m saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us.” more...

Al Aqsa leader: Jews have no right to Mount (October 22, 2005) - Following is a WorldNetDaily exclusive interview with Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, the Muslim group in Israel most identified with Temple Mount militancy. The Movement, which Israel says is associated with Hamas, campaigns for Islamic control of Israeli holy sites, and has been calling the past few weeks for Muslims to ascend the Mount en mass to protect it from “Jewish attacks.” more...

Category 3 Wilma Rips Across Florida (October 24, 2005) - Powerful Hurricane Wilma made landfall Monday near Cape Romano, Florida, and raced toward the east coast of the peninsula with 100-mph winds. The eyewall hit at 6:30 a.m. ET, about 22 miles south of Naples, the center said. At 8 a.m. ET, Wilma was about 35 miles east-northeast of Everglades City. A continuing increase in forward speed is expected throughout the day as it’s forecast to cross the peninsula and exit into the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center in Miami recorded a wind gust of 104 mph. “The metropolitan areas of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Dade County are experiencing some of the worst of the weather now,” said NHC deputy director Ed Rappaport. “Over the next hour or two conditions will actually get worse, and we’ll actually have hurricane conditions for a number of hours. It’s important for people to just stay inside.” more...

Wilma’s Rage Suggests New Hurricane Categories Needed (October 24, 2005) - In a season that has included three Category 5 hurricanes for the first time on record in the Atlantic Basin, scientists are beginning to wonder if their rating system is adequate, LiveScience has learned. On the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, there is no Category 6. But Hurricane Wilma this week brushed up against where a 6 would be if the scale were logically extrapolated to include another category. And hurricanes are getting stronger, apparently fueled by global warming. Researchers expect that trend to continue. Kerry Emanuel, a climatologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, calls the Saffir-Simpson scale irrational, in part because it deals only with wind. “I think the whole category system needs serious rethinking,” Emanuel told LiveScience. But in a telephone interview, the 88-year-old co-creator of the scale, Herbert Saffir, defended it as simple and useful for the public. “As simple as it is, I like the scale,” Saffir said today. “I don’t like to see it too complex.” more...

Hate Bill Defeated in Judiciary! (October 24, 2005) - Yesterday in a stunning surprise, the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Senator Orrin Hatch, refused to pass S.1145, “The Local Law Enforcement Crime Prevention Act of 2005.” Yet, Senator Edward Kennedy still intends to pass the hate crimes bill. He wants to reattach it to the new version of the Children’s Safety Act, “The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act,” S.1086. Although rebuffed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Kennedy is confident, considering the 65 to 33 vote in the Senate in June 2004, that S.1145 will easily be passed by the Senate as an attachment to S.1086. In light of the pro-hate bill record of both House and Senate, Kennedy’s threat must be taken very seriously. more...

The Ball is Now in Syria’s Court (October 24, 2005) - The findings of the United Nations-sanctioned Mehlis commission have ripped like a thunderstorm through Syria and Lebanon. When parts of the 53-page report began to emerge at about midnight (Damascus time) on October 20-21, everybody turned on Arabic satellite TV. People were waiting to hear a clear sentence saying: “Syrian Mr X pressed the explode button on February 14, 2005, killing former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, under orders from Damascus.” Such an explicit statement was not made. A threat, rather than an accusation, was fired at Damascus in the Mehlis report, making it clear that it could not find concrete evidence against Syria. Had the investigation obtained something tangible to incriminate the Syrians, by name, it would not have failed to include it in the findings. Hariri, a billionaire politician, and 22 others were killed in a car bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut in February. The incident led to calls for the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agents who had been in Lebanon since the early stages of the country’s civil war (1975-1980). more...

Is God Trying to Talk to Somebody in America? (October 24, 2005)

Amos 9:6 b
He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the land. The Lord is his name.

Psalm 104:3­4
He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, and flames of fire his servants.

Nearly 4000 years ago, the Hebrew God gave Egypt’s king opportunity to do the right thing by letting His people go. The Almighty used words of admonition, nothing more, through Aaron and Moses. Yet when Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, God’s rod became his lectern, and weather, among other things, helped bring Yahweh’s significant point across. Last week, my friend Jerry Robinson editorialized that God should not be blamed for recent weather anomalies. Others disagreed. Salon magazine took particular pleasure in pointing out that President Bush himself used the pulpit at the National Prayer Service to shed personal responsibility for New Orleans by pointing his finger at God. Bush may have been right. Dozens of scriptures from both Old and New Testament books confirm that God often uses weather to get peoples attention. So if God is speaking, and this isn’t simply a freak storm season, who is He talking too and what is He is saying. more...