Prophetic Times
|
WEEKLY WORLD NEWS UPDATE |
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA |
07 JUNE 2003 |
HAMAS, JIHAD SAY WON'T DISARM, DEFY PALESTINIAN PM
June 5, 2003 Reuters
reports: "Palestinian militant groups vowed on Wednesday they would not
disarm, defying an appeal by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas issued at
a U.S.-led peace summit with Israel. 'We will never be ready to lay down arms
until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine,' Hamas
official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said. Islamic Jihad, another group sworn to
Israel's destruction, followed suit.
But
neither group ruled out further talks with Abbas, which seeks a halt to
Palestinian attacks in a 32-month-old revolt for independence in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Abbas
met President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Jordanian
resort Aqaba on Wednesday for talks aimed at advancing a U.S.-backed peace
'road map' which envisages a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel. 'The
armed Intifada (uprising) must end and we must resort to peaceful means to
achieve our goals,' Abbas said.
Hamas
and Islamic Jihad view Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, as
Palestinian land but have indicated they could halt suicide bombings and other
attacks inside the Jewish stateY"
June 5, 2003 The London Daily
Telegraph reports: "The European Union agreed
yesterday to deploy the new Euro-army for the first time outside NATO command,
taking charge of a high-risk United Nations mission to stop the slaughter of
civilians in the Congo.
The
French-led force, authorized by the United Nations last week, will now come
under the European Rapid Reaction Force.
Most of the 1,400-strong force will be made up of French troops wearing
EU insignia, backed by British specialists, and Belgian, Canadian and African
troops.
They
will start moving into action next week, with artillery and fighter jet
support, ready to fight pitched battles if necessary.
Up
to 400 villagers have already been killed in the Congo's eastern Ituri region
over the last three weeks, many by roving rebel groups under the sway of
neighboring Rwanda. The feuding militias have overwhelmed the UN's
lightly-armed garrison in Bunia, which is mostly cooped up in its own compound.
Glenys
Kinnock, a Labour MEP, said: 'All the signs are that this could tip over into
terrible bloodshed and become another genocide.
'The
French have been itching to go in but they're not the most loved in the region,
so if it's an EU force, with the Brits on board, it has far less political
baggage.'
The
EU deployed elements of its 60,000-man rapid reaction force for the first time
in Macedonia two months ago, but the mission relies on a NATO 'extraction
force' if anything goes wrong. Diplomats say the Congo is much more dangerous
terrainY"
ATHEIST PREMIER ATTACKS LACK OF CHRISTIANITY IN EU CONSTITUTION
June 4, 2003 The London Daily
Telegraph reports: "Poland's President
Aleksander Kwasniewski, denounced the 'Godless' tone of the European
constitution yesterday, calling it shameful to highlight the pet ideologies of
the Left but omit any mention of Europe's Christian heritage in the opening
words.
'I
am an atheist and everybody knows it, but there are no excuses for making
references to ancient Greece and Rome, and the Enlightenment, without making
references to the Christian values which are so important to the development of
Europe,' he said.
Speaking
to The Telegraph at the end of a 45-day campaign to drum up support for his
country's referendum this weekend on Poland's membership of the European Union,
he said: 'The most significant feature of every city and town in Europe is
either a cathedral or a church.'
Mr.
Kwasniewski was campaigning in Gniezno, the birthplace of Polish Catholicism in
966 and the medieval capital of Poland's first princes and kings. He predicted
that Poles would vote by 80 per cent to join the EU, despite deep misgivings
about loss of cultural identityY"
ISLAMISTS BURN TO DEATH
CHRISTIAN PASTOR, FAMILY
June 4, 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
reports: "Military forces led by Sudan's militant Islamist regime burned
to death a Christian pastor and his family in a massacre of 59 unarmed
villagers, a relief group working in the area reportedY
Sudan's
cleric-backed National Islamic Front regime in the Arab and Muslim north
declared a jihad on the mostly Christian and animist south in 1989. Since 1983,
an estimated 2 million people have died from war and related famine. About 5
million have become refugees.
The
May 22 attack was completely unprovoked, according to Seattle-based Servant's Heart, as no members of the
rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army were in the area. The militia also wounded
15 and abducted 10 children and 6 women. The forces used a combination of
rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, .50-caliber heavy machine guns and assault
rifles.
Many
villagers were burned alive as they hid in their homes from the government-led
forces, Servant's Heart saidY"
CIA SAYS AL QAEDA READY TO USE NUKES
June 3, 2003 The Washington Times
reports: "Al Qaeda terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes, according to a new CIA
report. 'Al Qaeda's goal is the use of
[chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass
casualties,' the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month.
'However,
most attacks by the group
C
and especially by associated extremists
C
probably will be small-scale, incorporating relatively crude delivery means and
easily produced or obtained chemicals, toxins or radiological substances,' the
report said.
Islamist
extremists linked to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden 'have a wide variety of
potential agents and delivery means to choose from for chemical, biological and
radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attacks,' said the four-page report titled
'Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects.'
The
unclassified report was produced by the CIA's intelligence directorate, and a
copy of it was obtained by The Washington Times. The report identifies several deadly toxins
and chemicals that al Qaeda could use to conduct the attacks, including nerve
gases, germ and toxin weapons anthrax and ricin, and radiological dispersal
devices, also known as 'dirty bombs.'Y"
U.S. SEEKS ABILITY TO
'TAKE DOWN' NORTH KOREA QUICKLY
June 3, 2003 Reuters reports:
"U.S. plans to transform allied forces at the Korean demilitarized zone
would be aimed at ensuring U.S. and South Korean forces could begin 'taking
down' the North's frontline from the first hour of a war, a senior U.S. defense
official said Monday.
General
Leon Laporte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, was working on a plan
which was 'quite a transformation in the way both our countries would be
postured,' the official said. 'While we
can't completely compensate for the fact that North Korea has so much stuff
right up forward on the DMZ, we could begin taking it down from the first hour
of the war and that would make a big difference,' the official said.
The
communist North has thousands of loaded artillery pieces aimed at Seoul and
half of its army is deployed within 40 miles of the DMZ dividing the peninsula,
the world's most heavily fortified border.
The
United States has branded North Korea, which it suspects of building nuclear
weapons, part of an 'axis of evil' along with pre-war Iraq and Iran. For its
part, North Korea has accused the United States of using the nuclear issue as
an excuse for an eventual attack. The official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said that the present U.S. military posture at the North-South
border 'sacrifices a good deal of military capability for the symbolism of
having some American soldiers on the DMZ. 'It means if North Korea were to
attack we would spend a lot of the first period of time ... reorganizing and
regrouping in order to start hitting back,' he addedY"
Compiled by L. Jim Tuck,
Pastor
ljtuc@msn.com
UCGIA, Oakland, San Jose, Stockton, & Santa Rosa, California