World News

Religious

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council have agreed to be merged into the World Communion of Reformed Churches. The union was approved by about 400 delegates gathered at Calvin College in Grand Rapids and represents about 80 million Christians from108 countries in nearly 230 denominations.

Uzbekistan has continued short-term jailing of religious minorities, with three Protestant Christians from a registered church being given 15-day jail terms. Three other Protestants—arrested after a raid on the Tashkent church—were each fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage, and two other Protestants were fined five times the minimum monthly wage. Among other recent punishments for “illegal” religious literature, one Baptist has been fined 20 times the monthly minimum wage and his religious literature—including the New Testament—was ordered to be destroyed.

Pope Benedict XVI, 83, begged for forgiveness from abuse victims for the sins of his priests. The pope also promised that he would do every thing possible to make sure that nothing like this would happen again in the future. This year has been a tough one for the Vatican, which has been criticized for the way it handled the hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse that surfaced. According to a poll taken two months ago in Germany, “about a quarter of the country’s Catholics are considering quitting” the church, Reuters reported.

The Church of England is expected to pave the way for the consecration of women bishops when it publishes final proposals. The legislation, to be debated by the General Synod in July, will trigger a departure of some traditionalists to the Roman Catholic Church.

A new poll from USA To day/Gallup found that 92 percent of Americans believe in a God and 83 percent believe that he answers prayers.

LifeWay Christian Resources surveyed 1,200 18-to 29-year-olds and found that almost three-quarters describe themselves as “more spiritual than religious.” Even among the 65 per cent who call them selves Christians, most of them say they rarely or never pray, go to worship services, or read the Bible. Thom Rainer, the president of LifeWay, describes them as “mushy Christians, or Christians in name only.” Only about 15 per cent of self-identified Christians reported regular prayer, study, or worship.

Social

For the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies of honey bees in the United States have failed to survive the winter. The decline of the country’s estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees world wide have died. The number of managed honey bee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government’s Agricultural Research Service. The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of every thing we eat depends upon honeybee pollination.

At least 39 people have been killed in north eastern Brazil in floods across the region. An other 1,000 are missing, according to authorities. The floodwaters destroyed more than 40,000 homes, streets, bridges, and rail lines in 22 towns.

India over took China to top the world in road fatalities in 2006 and has continued to pull steadily ahead. Fatalities are skyrocketing—up 40 per cent in five years to more than 118,000 in 2008. Poor road planning, inadequate law enforcement, a surge in trucks and cars, and a flood of untrained drivers have made India the world’s road death capital.

To day more video is up loaded to YouTube in 60 days than all three U.S. television net works have created in 60 years. Twenty-four hours of video are up loaded every minute.

New Zealand, Iceland, Japan, Austria, and Norway are the most peaceful places to live in the world [according to the Global Peace Index compiled by VisionOfHumanity.org]. New Zealand gets top honors for the second year in a row [thanks to] a low homicide rate, a tiny military budget, and a healthy respect for human rights. Iraq came in last in the ranking of 150 countries.

Researchers at the Pew Research Center report that nearly one out of seven new marriages in the U.S. is interracial or interethnic. “This is the highest it has ever been,” said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer for the Pew Research Center. Today’s growing acceptance of interracial marriages is a contrast to the over whelming attitudes 50 years ago that such marriage was wrong—and even illegal. During most of U.S. history, interracial marriages have been banned or considered taboo, sociologists say.

The nation’s minority population is steadily rising and now makes up 35 percent of the United States, advancing an unmistakable trend that could render them the new American majority by midcentury. New Census estimates for 2009 show minorities added 2.5 per cent, or 107.2 million people, boosted by a surge in Hispanic births and more people who described themselves as multiracial. During this time, the white population remained flat, making up roughly 199.9 million, or 65 per cent, of the country. In 2000, whites comprised 79 per cent of the total population and minorities 21 per cent.

New research published in the scientific journal Sleep found that abnormal sleeping patterns—sleeping consistently too little or too much—are tied to premature death. The study, conducted by a joint team from the Unversity of Warwick and the Federico II University medical school in Naples, determined that getting between six and eight hours of sleep each night is optimal. Individuals who regularly sleep less than six hours each night are 12 percent more likely to experience premature death. The research team analyzed data from 16 different studies that covered more than 1.3 million people across Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Workers who put in 10 or more hours a day have a 60 percent greater risk of heart attack, angina, and death from cardiovascular disease than those with no overtime work. A study of more than 10,000 British civil servants found that those with the highest risk of heart disease claimed to work 11 to 12 hours per day.

With temperatures well above 100 degrees across northern India for the past two months, hospitals have been packed with people suffering from heatstroke. Hundreds of people have been reported dead, but officials are unable to put together a country-wide estimate, acknowledging that most of the casualties have been in remote villages. Temperatures are expected to continue climbing in coming weeks—pushing 122 degrees Fahrenheit—even though this summer is already the hottest on record for northern India since records began over 100 years ago.

In a 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that bosses are within their rights to read employee text messages if they have reason to believe that work rules are being broken.

About 1,000 women die as a result of breast cancer every month and, in 2007, more than 45,000 women were diagnosed. Dr. Vincent Tuohy, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, has developed a vaccine that he believes may be able to wipe out the disease completely. “We truly believe that a preventive breast cancer vaccine will do to breast cancer what the polio vaccine has done to polio,” he said. If successful, researchers say that general practitioners would be able to offer the vaccine to women before they reach their mid-40s, the age at which the risk of breast cancer rises steeply.

Political

India has success fully test-fired an intermediate range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload of 1,000 kilograms. The Agni (literally “fire” in Hindi and Sanskrit) missile family is believed to be the cornerstone of India’s missile based nuclear deterrent. The Agni-II, a surface-to-surface missile, can travel up to 1,250 miles and is the country’s most sophisticated weapon.

A seven-year-old boy was murdered by the Taliban in an apparent act of retribution. Afghan officials said that the child was accused of spying for US and NATO forces and hanged from a tree.

Belarus is expected to experience transit shortages and other problems as Russia’s state-controlled natural gas monopoly Gazprom continues to cut supplies until the ex-Soviet neighbor makes good on an unpaid debt of nearly $200 million. Belarus officials refuse to pay, insisting that Russia owes their country $260 million in transit fees. Russia has cut gas supplies to both Belarus and Ukraine in the past over unpaid debt, causing many to suffer in freezing winter temperatures.

Thousands of public sector employees took to the streets of Athens to protest austerity measures designed to help curb Greece’s massive debt. Under the austerity plan, the Greek government would be forced to cut bonuses for public sector employees, increase taxes on gas, alcohol, and cigarettes by 10 per cent, and implement salary freezes for civil servants. In exchange, the country would receive a $146 billion package over the next 10 years and try to escape defaulting on its debt.

Iran announced it has agreed to send the bulk of its nuclear material to Turkey in exchange for enriched uranium fuel. Despite the announcement, an Iranian foreign ministry of official reiterated that Iran would continue enriching its own uranium to 20%, a move experts feared would put it closer to making nuclear weapons. It remains to be seen if this change in Iranian policy will ease international concerns over Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons and US-led efforts to impose sanctions on Tehran.

The world’s developed countries have built extensive public health systems, promised citizens a paycheck for life and erected a welter of protections around some industries and types of jobs. Now their leaders are conferring in Toronto over a singular dilemma: how to take some of it back with out undermining the economies they are trying to sustain. Deep cuts are under way in Greece and Spain, have been proposed in Britain and recommended for the United States to begin by 2011. Public retirement and health programs are singled out. Much of the projected increase in future public spending in developed countries is related to the aging of their populations.

Thousands of French workers took to the streets of Paris to fight a measure that would raise the age of retirement from 60—one of the lowest in Europe— to 61 or 62. President Sarkozy proposed the increase before the debt crisis hit, but with the rest of Europe tightening its belt, government officials say that the French welfare system is simply unable to provide for the growing number of retirees. The French age of retirement was reduced from 65 to 60 in 1984, and unions say that they won’t give up the luxury with out a fight.

Financial

The economic implications of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster are potentially mammoth—but highly uncertain. The annual commercial seafood harvest in the gulf is $661 million, recreational fishing contributes $757 million and nearly 8,000 jobs, and tourism related to wild life adds $517 million, according to the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. It remained unclear Monday how much damage those industries will incur from the oil spill, and how long that damage will last. The research group estimates that $1.6 billion in annual economic activity is tied to the wetlands directly exposed to the spill.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet launched a campaign to get American billionaires to donate at least half of their wealth to charity. Forbes estimates that there are approximately 400 billionaires in the United States, with a net worth of about $1.2 trillion. Buffett pledged to donate 99 per cent of his fortune. So far, four couples have agreed to partic ipate.

More home owners are simply refusing to pay their mortgages. With many lenders unwilling to renegotiate payments that were determined before the bubble popped, some home owners argue that ignoring payments is their only option. Additionally, because free riders say that bad loans got them into trouble in the first place, many feel justified in cutting off banks. There are currently 1.7 million homes in foreclosure, and estimates suggest that more than 650,000 of these house holds have not made a payment in a year and a half.

According to the 14th Merrill Lynch Capgemini World Wealth Report, the number of millionaires in the world rose in 2009 by 17.1%, to some 10 million, despite the economic down turn. The number of millionaires in Israel increased by 42.7%, to 8,419. Israel takes third place in the increase of millionaires after Hong Kong and India. The report defines a millionaire as any one with at least $1 million in liquid funds, not including invested capital, and after all debts are deducted. In 2009, the world’s million aires held a total of US$39 trillion—an increase of 18.9% compared to the previous year.

Israel

Despite growing strains in Turkey’s relationship with Israel, which reached a nadir [lowest point] following the deadly commando raid on a Gazabound flotilla, a delegation of more than 20 Turkish officers and soldiers landed in the Jewish state for a two-week visit, during which they will be trained to operate the Heron drone. Turkey has purchased 10 Heron drones for an estimated US$190 mil lion. Six of them have al ready been delivered. The drones are manufactured by the Israel Aero space Industries and are used by the Turkish military to gather intelligence in the on going conflict with Kurdish insurgents.

The state ceremony marking 43 years since the reunification of Jerusalem [by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War] was held May 12 on Jerusalem’s Ammunition Hill, as international voices are increasingly calling for territorial concessions to be made in the capital. “We will never divide Jerusalem,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We will never let Jerusalem again be a divided, gloomy, and halved city.”

Russia’s energy minister said his country is considering helping Syria build a nuclear reactor for producing energy. The minister made the statements as he accompanied Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on his land mark visit to Damascus. “Cooperation on atomic energy might gain new momentum,” Medvedev said in a joint press conference he held with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The curious move came as the Russian leader called for a nuclear-weapons free Middle East.

Israel was invited along with Slovenia and Estonia to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developent (OECD), an exclusive economic group now set to consist of 34 members ranging from Sweden to Mexico. The decision culminated a nearly three-year negotiation process with a unanimous vote from the 31 other OECD members.

Israel was singled out by name in the resolution that ended the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, calling for them, along with India and Pakistan, to join the NPT, a move that could force Israel to give up their purported nuclear weapons. The 189 NPT nations also agreed to call for a conference by 2012 on ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction. Israel, which neither confirms nor denies nuclear weapons capability, slammed the resolution.

Following a record number of tourists for the month of May, Israel has now set records for individual months for six straight months. The Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 309,000 tourists visited Is rael in May 2010. That set an all-time record for the month, besting last year by 33% and an improvement of 4% on May 2008. Currently 2008 holds the record for most tourists in a year, but that record could be topped in 2010.

New research has found Jews share a genetic bond with Cypriots and Druze and confirms the Jewish Diaspora maintained a strong DNA continuity despite its long separation from the Middle East, scientists said. The work, published in the British journal Nature, is part of a wider exploration into human migration based on clusters of tiny differences in genetic code. The study confirmed the Middle Eastern, or Levantine, origins of Jews as documented in ancient Hebrew Scriptures.

The ultra-Orthodox, a community of 700,000 who live in isolated enclaves across the country of around 7 million, are Israel’s poorest sector. About 60 per cent of the men do not work, in stead pursuing state-subsidized religious studies. In keeping with the religious injunction to “be fruitful and multiply,” ultra-Orthodox families are large, with an average of seven children. Some 60 per cent of the community lives be low the poverty line.