Report: Anti-Semitism Up Across Europe
AP reports, "Violence against Jews is on the rise in several European Union countries, an EU report said Wednesday. France had a six-fold increase between 2002 and 2003 in the number of violent anti-Semitic incidents and documented threats, according to the report by the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia." :: Submitted for your files on anti-Semitism.

Teacher Charged With Choking Second-Grader
AP reports, "A substitute teacher is accused of using a string to choke a 7-year-old student who had not done his homework. Albert Coleman, 59, is accused of slipping a string around the child's neck and drawing it tight, police said. He was fired by the Newark school district, and police charged him with aggravated assault following Monday's incident at the Elliott Street School." :: Submitted for your Wickedness Increases (Matthew 24:12) files on crimes against children.

Iraqis Drag 4 U.S. Bodies Through Streets
AP reports, "In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their SUVs." :: Submitted for your War (Matthew 24:6) files.

101 Detained in Danish Child Porn Raids
AP repots, "Acting on a tip from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Danish police raided scores of homes Tuesday and detained 101 men suspected of using credit cards to access Web sites containing child pornography." :: Submitted for your Wickedness Increases (Matthew 24:12) files on crimes against children.

New Scientist: NASA develops 'mind-reading' system
The new system works through sensors attached under the chin and to the side of the larynx. NASA hopes to use this to:

feed "spoken" commands into a speech-reco command interpreter and
1. help a disabled person to talk who otherwise cannot talk.

The article foresees another application: people being able to "whisper" without making even that much sound.

This could have an obvious terrorist application: imagine teams of saboteurs or kidnappers coordinating their movements without their victims ever being aware of them until they are ready to strike, pounce, or blow something up, or execute whatever orders they had. But I imagine something else: think how the apparatus of the Beast and the False Prophet [Revelation 13] could use an apparatus like this.

Russia Boasts Weapon to Battle Star Wars
AP & Yahoo News report, "Russia has designed a 'revolutionary' weapon that would make the prospective U.S. missile defense useless, Russian news agencies reported Monday, quoting a senior Defense Ministry official...Military analysts said that the mysterious new weapons could be a maneuverable ballistic missile warhead or a hypersonic cruise missile." :: Submitted for your files on Rumors of War (Matthew 24:6).

Moscow Court Bans Jehovah's Witnesses
AP reports, "A Moscow court has banned the religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses from the Russian capital in a move that critics called a step back for democracy and religious freedom." :: Submitted for your files on religious persecution (Matthew 24:8).

Child Is 10th Victim of Turkey Earthquake
AP reports, "The death of a young girl on Saturday raised 10 the number of people killed in an earthquake earlier this week in eastern Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported." :: Submitted for your Quake (Matthew 24:7) files.

Rare Hurricane Forms in South Atlantic
AP reports, "The first known hurricane to form in the South Atlantic threatened the coast of Brazil on Saturday packing winds of about 85 mph. No other hurricane has been spotted in the South Atlantic since satellites began tracking weather systems in the 1960s, said Robbie Berg, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami." :: Submitted for your files on Fearsome Events (Luke 21:11).

7 Killed As Quake Shakes Eastern Turkey
AP reports, "A strong earthquake shook eastern Turkey on Thursday, collapsing several homes and killing at least seven people, including four children, an official said." :: Submitted for your files on Quakes (Matthew 24:7).

Blair Makes Historic Visit to Libya
AP reports, "British Prime Minister Tony Blair, after a historic meeting with Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, said the former North African pariah state could become an important partner in the war on terror as it fulfills a pledge to scrap weapons of mass destruction." :: Libya is an important country to watch, called Cush in Bible prophecy, it is mentioned several times (Ezekiel 38:5; Daniel 11:43).

Megapixel Camera Phones Are Coming:
AP reports, "The megapixel camera phones are coming, probably just in time for the arrival of speedier cellular technologies that can transmit higher-quality digital photos and even video." :: This report is submitted for you files on Global Community (Rev 9:11). And a word of explanation for those unfamiliar with this particular prophecy, there will come a time when global news events happen that touch the lives of everyone, and they respond by sending each other "gifts." Whether one can interpret gifts to mean e-mail and images (still or vid) or actual gifts, the fact remains that technology is bringing us all closer together and able to participate directly in global news events.

Supreme Court to Take Up 'Under God'
AP reports, "Americans overwhelmingly want the phrase 'under God' preserved in the Pledge of Allegiance, a new poll says as the Supreme Court on Wednesday examines whether the classroom salute crosses the division of church and state." :: While this report does not really fit our classic definition of persecution (Matthew 24:8), it does point to the animosity some have at even the generic mention of God.

Jewish Center in France Set on Fire
AP and Yahoo News report, "Attackers set fire to a Jewish community center in southeast France overnight, causing slight damage to the entry hall, police said Tuesday...France has been battling anti-Semitic violence for more than two years, often involving attacks against Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers. In March 2002, a synagogue in the nearby city of Marseille was burned to the ground." :: Submitted for Wickedness Increases (Matthew 24:12) files on the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.

Five Planets Visible Across Evening Sky
AP reports, "Five planets are arrayed across the evening sky in a spectacular night show that won't be back for another three decades. For the next two weeks, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - the five closest planets - should be easily visible at dusk, along with the moon." :: Submitted for your files on Signs and Wonders in the Heavens (Luke 21:11).

WorldNetDaily: Iraqi cops: Youth drugged, brainwashed
In the days of the Crusades, they gave hashish to young men and then invited them into a fancied-up whorehouse. Afterward they told these men--the hashshasheen (whence assassin)--that they had just had a taste of the heaven that awaited them if they went out and killed in the name of the faith. And today they use narcotics. It hasn't changed much, has it?::Submitted for your wild man in the desert [Genesis 25] files.

Israel assassinates Sheikh Yassin, Hamas pledges all-out war
AFP and Yahoo News report, "Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza, prompting the Palestinian radical Islamist movement he founded to declare all-out war on Israel." :: Submitted for your files on the Battle for Jerusalem (Ezekiel 38:8; Zechariah 12; Luke 21:20).

Sony, Infineon develop multi-function IC cards
AFP reports, "Sony said it has jointly developed a hi-tech card which will enable users to clear a railway ticket gate, withdraw cash from a bank machine and pay a restaurant bill." :: Submitted for your Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:16-18) on cool new commerce technology.

Terror Blasts Kill at Least 192 in Spain
AP reports, "A series of bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession Thursday, blowing apart four commuter trains and killing at least 192 people and wounding more than 1,400. Spain at first blamed Basque separatists but a shadowy group claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaida for the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history." :: Submitted for your War (Matthew 24:6) and Fearsome Events (Luke 21:11) files.

MEMRI: Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Hassan Rohani: The World Must Accept Iran's Membership in the World Nuclear Club

In other words: "We have nuclear weapons, and there is nothing that you can or even should do about it."

Ask yourselves: Against whom would Iran use such weapons, if not something called Israel? We see here that Persia is arming itself for the Gog/Magog War [Ezekiel 38].

Hubble Images Show Deepest Universe View
AP reports, "The deepest-ever view of the universe, a long-duration exposure by the Hubble Space Telescope that looks back to the edge of the big bang, shows a chaotic scramble of odd galaxies, smashing into each other and re-forming in bizarre shapes." :: Submitted for your files on Signs in the Stars (Luke 21:25) files.

Arafat resolved to reach Temple Mount - alive or dead
Jerusalem Newsire reports, "Blood-soaked PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat is reportedly determined to get control over God's holy hill, the Temple Mount, even if it has to be after and through his death. But the self-styled champion of the quest to secure incontestable Islamic control over Israel's holiest site faces growing opposition to his hopes of being buried on the Temple Mount from among his fellow faithful." :: Submitted for your files on the Temple Mount (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15 & 2 Thessalonians 2:4).

Tech Co. Helps Monitor Disease Outbreaks
AP reports, "Now 33, Meyer has shifted his peripatetic existence into a steady gig - head of Voxiva Inc., a company he founded in 2001 to help developing countries monitor disease outbreaks and other health information." :: Submitted for your Pestilence (Luke 21:11) files.

Japan Cabinet OK's War Contingencies
AP reports, "Japan's Cabinet endorsed a set of proposals Tuesday to respond to a foreign attack and other emergencies by tightening coordination with the U.S. military, boosting the powers of Japanese forces and evacuating citizens." :: Submitted for your files on Rumors of War (Matthew 24:6).

German Airport to Get Biometric Security
AP reports, "Frankfurt airport and Lufthansa airline employees will be able to pass security checks by scanning their biometric data, such as fingerprints and iris patterns, under a pilot project announced Friday." :: Submitted for your Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:16-18) files on biometric ID technology.

Report: Chinese Police Detain Church Head
AP reports, "Police beat a leader of an underground Christian church and his wife during a campaign to stifle dissent during the annual meeting of China's legislature, a human rights group alleged Saturday." :: Submitted for your files on Persecution (Matthew 24:8).

2003 Likely Europe's Hottest in 500 Years
AP reports, "Last year's deadly summer in Europe probably was the hottest on the continent in at least five centuries, according to researchers who analyzed old records, soil cores and other evidence. More than 19,000 people died." :: Submitted for your Fear for the Future (Luke 21:26) files on climate change.

Superflu is being brewed in the lab
Gyre picks up a New Scientist report that states, "After the worldwide alarm triggered by 2003's SARS outbreak, it might seem reckless to set about creating a potentially far more devastating virus in the lab. But that is what is being attempted by some researchers, who argue that the dangers of doing nothing are even greater." :: Submitted for your Pestilence (Luke 21:11) and Fear for the Future (Luke 21:26) files.

Target Phasing Out 'Smart' Visa Cards
Reuters/Yahoo News reports, "Retailing giant Target Corp. is phasing out computer chips on its Target Visa cards due to limited shopper use, dealing a setback to proponents of "smart card" technology." :: Submitted for your Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:16-18) files on commerce tech.

Iraq Blasts Kill 143 on Shiite Holy Day
AP reports, "Suicide bombers carried out simultaneous attacks on Shiite Muslim shrines in Iraq on Tuesday, detonating multiple explosions that ripped through crowds of pilgrims. At least 143 people were killed and 430 wounded - the bloodiest day since the fall of Saddam Hussein." :: Submitted for your files on Wars and Rumors of War (Matthew 24:6).