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Religious

The Vatican said it will make it far easier for disgruntled Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, in one of Rome’s most sweeping gestures to a Protestant church since the Reformation. A newly created set of canon laws, known as an “Apostolic Constitution,” will clear the way for entire congregations of Anglican faithful to join the Catholic Church. That represents a potentially serious threat to the already fragile world-wide communion of national Anglican churches, which has about 77 million members globally. The move comes amid disarray within the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian communion after Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.

—Wall Street Journal, 10/21/2009

The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report billed as the most comprehensive of its kind. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long been subject to guesswork. Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria. The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East more than 60 percent of the world’s Muslims live in Asia.

—Associated Press, 10/8/2009

Americans who don’t identify with any religion are now 15% in the USA, but trends in a new study show they could one day surpass the nation’s largest denominations—including Catholics, now 24% of the nation.

—USA Today, 9/22/2009

Major Jewish groups and rabbis from the three largest branches of American Judaism said that their relationship with Roman Catholic leaders is at risk because of a recent U.S. bishops’ statement on salvation. Jewish groups said they interpret the new document to mean that the bishops view interfaith dialogue as a chance to invite Jews to become Catholic. The statement fueling the tension was issued by the bishops in June to clarify a 2002 document called “Covenant and Mission.”

—Associated Press, 8/21/2009

 Social

By the end of 2009 women could make up more than half the U.S. workforce for the first time in history. Today 57% of college students are women. 39% of all births are to unmarried mothers; 10% of women age 45 to 54 have never been married. There are now 3.3 million married couples in which the wife is the sole earner.

 —TIME, 10/26/2009

Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top one percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000.

—Chicago Tribune, 8/15/2009

If the pace of increase in life expectancy in developed countries over the past two centuries continues through the 21st century, most babies born since 2000 in [these countries] will celebrate their 100th birthdays. Research suggests that people are living longer without severe disability.

—The Lancet, 10/3/2009

For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war. The Pentagon said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist. The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War.

—The Washington Post, 10/14/2009

China’s passenger vehicle sales in the January-September period rose 41.9% to 7.24 million units, the sharpest growth rate on record, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday. It said it expects overall auto sales to exceed the 10 million mark by mid-October, and that auto sales for the whole year may exceed 12 million units.

—Wall Street Journal, 10/13/2009

Between 1970 and 2005, consumption of added sugars in the typical American diet increased by 19% to a total of 64 kilograms [140.8 pounds] per year. Last week the American Heart Assn. issued a statement calling on Americans to cut back on added sugars of all types.

—Los Angeles Times, 8/31/2009

35 million Americans received food stamps in June —a record high and a 22% increase from the previous summer.

—TIME, 9/21/2009

Even in the “oldest old,” a little physical activity goes a long way, extending life by at least a few years for people in their mid- to late 80s, Israeli researchers found. The three-year survival rate was about three times higher for active 85-year-olds compared with those who were inactive. Getting less than four hours of exercise weekly was considered inactive; more than that was active. Oldsters didn’t have to be super-athletes to live longer; walking at least four hours weekly counted, even if it was just in 15-minute strolls a few times daily. The study involved 1,861 Jerusalem residents who were 70 years old in 1990.

—Associated Press, 9/14/2009

There are more [text messages] transmitted every day than there are people on the planet.

—TIME, 9/21/2009

U.S. medical school enrollment is up for the 11th consecutive year as colleges seek to meet a growing demand for physicians. First-year enrollment climbed 2 percent over 2008, and now totals nearly 18,400 students. Four new medical schools opened their doors this year.

—Associated Press, 10/20/2009

Rescue workers dug out more than 120 bodies from under tons of mud and debris in northern Philippines after a week of relentless rains, officials said. At least 122 were killed by landslides and 13 others have previously been killed by the rains. The rains were brought by Typhoon Parma. Relief officials estimated total damage at nearly 2 billion pesos ($43 million), including 1.6 billion pesos in lost crops. The floods come two weeks after a previous storm inundated areas in and around the capital Manila. That storm, called Ketsana, killed at least 337 people and forced half a million from their homes. About 7.63 billion pesos in crops were damaged, mostly rice about to be harvested, forcing authorities to consider more imports. A further 2.7 billion pesos in infrastructure—roads, bridges and schools—was damaged, disaster officials said.

—Reuter’s, 10/9/2009

This past May the Vermont legislature passed a law guaranteeing Vermonters the right to put up a clothesline to dry their clothes. Hanging out laundry to dry is one of the most common-sense acts individuals can do for the environment. Although dryers use something like 25% of household energy, an estimated fifty million Americans live in communities that prohibit clotheslines.

 —The Vermont Country Store Catalog, Fall 2009

Unemployment rates in 372 U.S. metropolitan areas continued their upward climb in July, Labor Department figures show. Some 19 metros now have unemployment rates above 15%; eight are in California, hard-hit by the real-estate collapse, and five are in Michigan, suffering from the auto industry’s downturn. El Centro, Calif., continues to have the nation’s highest unemployment rate, rising to 30.2% in July. Among the biggest cities with a million people or more, Detroit’s unemployment rate was highest, at 17.7%. The Washington, D.C., metro area, at 6.2%, had the lowest unemployment rates in July.

—Wall Street Journal, 9/2/2009

Political

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has concluded that 61% of Americans believe it is more important to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if that means taking military action. According to the center’s press release on the poll, just 24% of those polled said it was more important to avoid military conflict, even if that means Iran may develop nuclear weapons. Said the release, “There is broad willingness across the political spectrum to use military force to prevent Iran from going nuclear.”

— BFP Israel Mosaic Radio, 10/12/2009

Ethiopia said it needs emergency food aid for 6.2 million people. The crisis stems from a prolonged drought that has hit much of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Somalia. Drought is especially disastrous in Ethiopia because more than 80 percent of people live off the land. Agriculture drives the economy, accounting for half of all domestic production and most exports. Ethiopia has long struggled with cyclical droughts, which are compounded by the country’s dependence on rain-fed agriculture and archaic farming practices. According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa’s agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85 percent of land is damaged.

—Associated Press, 10/22/2009

The Iranian News Agency IRNA is reporting news of the latest advancement in Iran’s nuclear development program. The agency quoted the head of the nation’s nuclear energy organization as saying that a “new generation” of centrifuges have been constructed and are currently in the testing phase. The official was quoted as saying that the new centrifuges are “stronger and faster” than those already in use. Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said intelligence sources confirmed that Iran intends to use its nuclear program to develop weapons.

—The Media Line, 9/23/2009

The Taliban are attempting to exact revenge on Afghan voters. Since the Aug. 20 election, Taliban fighters have launched nearly a dozen attacks. They have severed the fingers of voters, stolen ballot boxes, and murdered government officials.

—Wall Street Journal, 8/27/2009

The European Union is preparing to impose an arms embargo and visa ban to punish Guinea’s military rulers for a massacre at a pro-democracy rally in the latest effort to step up international pressure on the junta. The move comes days after West African leaders said they were placing an arms embargo on Guinea, where presidential guard troops opened fire on tens of thousands of demonstrators late last month. A Guinean human rights group says 157 people were killed, while the government said 57 died.

—Associated Press, 10/22/2009

Attorney General Eric Holder calls it the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating in the U.S.— the arrest of more than 300 people in a series of drug raids across the country. Holder said at a news conference that the arrests over the past two days were aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel. More than 3,000 federal agents and police officers made the arrests in more than a dozen states. The raids are part of a long-running anti-drug operation that has led to nearly 1,200 arrests over almost four years.

—Associated Press, 10/22/2009

Financial

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the worst recession since the 1930s is probably over, although he cautioned that pain—especially for the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans—will persist. Bernanke said the economy likely is growing now, but he warned that won’t be sufficient to prevent the unemployment rate, now at a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, from rising.

—Associated Press, 9/15/2009

From December 2007 to August 2009, the economy jettisoned nearly 7 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s a 5% decrease in the total number of jobs, a drop that hasn’t occurred since the end of World War II. The number of long-term unemployed, people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, was the highest since the BLS began recording the number in 1948.

—TIME, 9/21/2009

The Postal Service said that it would offer cash incentives in a bid to get up to 30,000 employees to voluntarily resign or take early retirement and save $500 million in 2010. With the Internet, the Postal Service has been experiencing what it calls “electronic diversion” with people moving online for correspondence and other activities. Another culprit: the electronic filing of tax returns. The Postal Service says there was a sharp increase in e-filing in 2009, with fewer people mailing in their forms.

—New York Times, 8/29/2009

Finance ministers and central bank chancellors attending the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Istanbul commended Israel’s financial policies, stable banking system and relatively low unemployment rates during a time of global recession. Those taking part in sessions praised Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer’s bold decision to increase interest rates in an attempt to curb inflation—a move Israel was the first to make among western economies—as well as his adamant demand that the government implement a lateral budget cut. Israel was rated among the top few countries that have managed their recession wisely alongside Australia, Japan and Germany, which were also lauded for their ability to stop their markets from slipping further into the recession plaguing world markets.

—Ynetnews.com, 10/5/2009

Tens of thousands of people may have taken advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit to defraud the government, an IRS watchdog office said in testimony. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George told a House panel that more than 19,000 people filed 2008 tax returns or amended returns claiming the credit for homes they had not yet purchased. George said his office had identified another $500 million in claims, by some 74,000 taxpayers, where there were indications of prior ownership. He said that they also found 580 taxpayers under the age of 18 who claimed $4 million in first-time home buyer credit. One was 4 years old.

—Associated Press, 10/22/2009

 Israel

Israel has become India’s largest supplier of defense-related materials. Israel has been consistently increasing its position as a leading purveyor of military goods to India. With the signing of this deal, the Jewish state becomes its leading weapons supplier. Cooperation between the two nations is broadening and will soon include bilateral scientific research. The research will fall under the auspices of the India Israel Institute for Industrial Research and Development and will include work in biotechnology, nanotechnology, agriculture, IT, medicine and communications.

—The Media Line, 8/23/2009

According to Dr. Amos Porat, head of the Climatology Department of the Israel Meteorological Service, the rainfall in September is the most that has been experienced for an early rainy season since at least 1959. In Israel, the rainy season typically runs from October until April. The north of the country, which is home to the Sea of Galilee, a vital part of Israel’s water supply, has had below-average rainfall for five years.

— BFP Israel Mosaic Radio, 9/22/2009

Israeli electric car infrastructure company Better Place will start importing and distributing Renault’s first passenger electric vehicle—the Fluence ZE five-seat sedan—to Israel in the first half of 2011 and will market it via subscriptions to customers from the Renault network in Denmark. The agreement marks nearly two years of development effort in creating the world’s first mass-market, zero-emission vehicle with a switchable battery.

— www.israel21c.org, 9/17/2009

Following the firing of a Kassam rocket at Israel, Israeli Air Force fighter-jets struck two smuggling tunnels in the Rafah border area of the southern Gaza Strip in response to the firing of a rocket at Israel. Nearly 65 rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israel during the last three months. In total, more than 250 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead in January.

—imra.org, 10/15/2009

Spain said it disqualified Israeli academics from a solar power design competition because their university is in the West Bank, the latest in a series of low-level European sanctions against Israel over its settlement policy.

—Associated Press, 9/24/2009

The Israel Antiquities Authority has uncovered one of the world’s oldest synagogues in an excavation at Migdal, near the Sea of Galilee. Inside the synagogue, a stone relief contains a depiction of the seven branched Menorah which stood in the Temple, and which was most likely seen by the artist who sculpted the stone relief. This is the first time that a Menorah decoration is discovered from the days in which the Temple still stood. Ancient Migdal—or Migdala, in Aramaic—is mentioned in the Christian “New Testament” as the place where Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala, came from.

—Arutz 7, 9/11/2009

Syria has transferred nearly a quarter of its long-and medium-range missile arsenal to Hizbullah, the Kuwaiti al Jarida reported. According to the report, security sources in Jerusalem told the paper that the missiles, now held by Hizbullah, could hit every part of Israel. Iranian and Syrian officers were reportedly training the Hizbullah operatives in using the new missiles and in operating early warning systems intended to alert Israeli jets.

—Jerusalem Post.com, 10/15/2009

Planes, trains and automobiles could be the newest electricity generators in Israel, thanks to technology being developed by the Israeli Innowattech company. The Innowattech Piezoelectric Generator technology, currently pilot testing its road vehicle model, converts mechanical energy generated by pressure on the roads from passing cars into usable electricity that can be stored or sold to the national electric grid. As cars drive over the energy harvesters placed into the roads, the system is able to generate electricity for streetlights and even homes. The technology could potentially be applied to train tracks and runways as well. The system is still 4 to 6 months away from being ready to mass-produce and move to a pilot system in Israel that will expand it to hundreds of meters.

—BFP Israel Mosaic Radio, 10/13/2009