PROPHETIC TIMES

MARINES FIND UNDERGROUND NUKE COMPLEX

Apr 10, 2003 WorldNetDaily.com reports: "U.S. Marines have located an underground nuclear complex near Baghdad that apparently went unnoticed by U.N. weapons inspectors.

Hidden beneath the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission's Al-Tuwaitha facility, 18 miles south of the capital, is a vast array of warehouses and bombproof offices that could contain the 'smoking gun' sought by intelligence agencies, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

'I've never seen anything like it, ever,' said Marine Capt. John Seegar. 'How did the world miss all of this? Why couldn't they see what was happening here?'

Marine nuclear and intelligence experts say that at least 14 buildings at Al-Tuwaitha indicate high levels of radiation and some show lethal amounts of nuclear residue, according to the Pittsburgh daily. The site was examined numerous times by U.N. weapons inspectors, who found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction…"

UN SPLIT OVER NORTH KOREA

Apr 10, 2003 BBC News reports: "The United Nations Security Council has expressed concern about North Korea's nuclear program, but failed to condemn Pyongyang for pulling out of a key global treaty. The US had hoped to persuade the UN to condemn North Korea but two other permanent Security Council members, China and Russia, have indicated they do not support such a move.

After the meeting the United States again stressed it wanted a peaceful solution to the six-month-old impasse. The US ambassador, John Negroponte, said Pyongyang must give up its nuclear ambitions and accept a reliable verification regime.

Pyongyang will be officially free from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on Thursday, having announced its withdrawal in January.

The Security Council can issue a statement urging the North to reverse its nuclear proliferation, and ultimately has the power to issue sanctions. Although Wednesday's closed-door meeting was inconclusive, the very act of the UN holding the discussion has riled Pyongyang, which called it an 'excessive' response and a 'prelude to war'.

North Korea issued a blunt warning to its neighbor, Japan, just hours before the meeting in New York.

The official KCNA news agency said Japan should be 'clearly mindful that it is also within the striking range' of North Korea's weapons…"

CDC: SARS 'THE BEGINNING OF A PROBLEM'

Apr 8, 2003 UPI reports: "Federal health officials Monday testified before a Senate committee that severe acute respiratory syndrome could be further spread in the United States and said they are working rapidly to develop treatments against it, as the number of SARS cases continued to mount worldwide.

Since it first surfaced in China in November, the new pneumonia-like illness known as SARS has spread quickly around the globe, infecting more than 2,600 people and killing 98. The United States Monday increased its number of cases to 148 but no deaths have been reported in the country.

'This is the beginning of a problem,' Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said as she testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

'We may see further spread of the disease in this country,' Gerberding added. This is in part because of so-called 'superspreaders,' or people who appear to be especially contagious after contracting the illness and could infect several other people, she said.
The future course of SARS is uncertain, Gerberding said. It could turn out to be a seasonal illness similar to West Nile virus or there could be a leveling off after the initial cases of infection. 'We don't know where this is going to go,' she said.”

EU PARLIAMENT CLEARS PATH FOR ENLARGEMENT

Apr 10, 2003 The EU Observer reports: "A majority of the EU Parliament voted in favor of the enlargement process Wednesday in Strasbourg, giving the right for ten future member states to sign the Accession Treaty next week in Athens.

MEPs voted on the enlargement report of each future member, giving his or her assent country by country. The Czech Republic got the least votes in favor, with only 498 out of 565 MEPs voting positively, while Latvia, Hungary and Slovenia all got the best support, with 522 positive votes.

At the same time, Parliament also adopted MEP Elmar Brok’s report recommending an enlargement of the EU with ten new countries in 2004. Mr. Brok received a clear majority of 458 votes in favor, out of a total of 567.

Pat Cox, the President of the EU Parliament congratulated the future members and stated that the 'enlargement time has come and the time is now'…"

NORTH KOREA ISSUES THREAT TO JAPAN

Apr 9, 2003 BBC News reports: "North Korea has issued a blunt warning to Japan, just hours before the United Nations Security Council prepared for its first meeting on the North's controversial nuclear program. The official KCNA news agency said Japan should be 'clearly mindful that it is also within the striking range' of North Korea's weapons.

The statement appeared to have been prompted by Japan's launching of two spy satellites in March. Although the North regularly issues threatening rhetoric, it did fire a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, and its latest warning will add to tensions in the region over its nuclear ambitions.

Ahead of the UN meeting, diplomats said China would block any attempt by the Security Council to criticize North Korea's decision to resume its nuclear program.

The United States has been pressing the Council to issue a statement condemning the government for withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and urging it to comply with its international obligations.

But China believes the crisis can best be solved outside the Security Council, and backs North Korea's demand that it should have direct talks with Washington.

South Korea's new President, Roh Moo-hyun, has announced he will visit US President George W Bush in Washington next month for their first face-to-face talks on the crisis…"

AVOID CAVEMAN POLITICS, SOLANA URGES US

Apr 9, 2003 The EU Observer eports: "A landmark speech by the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, at Harvard University on Monday is set to spark off the debate on future relations between the US and the EU after the huge damage created by the American-led preventative war against Iraq.

Mr. Solana picked up on many points laid out an article published last year that got policy tongues wagging on both sides of the Atlantic, Robert Kagan's 'Power and Weakness' in which he depicts Europeans as being from Venus and Americans from Mars.

'I am from Venus, which according to its detractors, is faint-hearted, soft-headed and militarily and politically weak. You are from Mars, which I am told is powerful, virile, dynamic: a land of moral clarity and resolute action,' said Mr. Solana before using the rest of the speech to stress how American and EU good relations are essential for the well-being of the whole world.

Speaking of the Iraq war which, for many Europeans was the final straw after a series of American unilateral steps such as not signing up to the International Criminal Court or the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, the foreign policy chief said 'it may be the first war of a new era.'

This was a 'dramatic display of American dominance' he said adding the current divisions have never before been so 'sharp' and raise questions 'about the new world order.'…"

Compiled by L. Jim Tuck, Pastor
ljtuc@msn.com

UCGIA, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa & Stockton, California

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