Prophecy News
"Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Revelation 22:20

YEAR 2000

July 11, 2000
Animal implants to start Aug. 1
After years of debate and study, the Los Angeles Animal Services Department announced Monday that it plans to begin implanting microchips in all animals adopted from any of its six shelters starting Aug. 1.

Under the program, all animals that are adopted will have the chips implanted at a cost of $15, Knapp told the City Council's Public Safety Committee. Other pet owners who want a chip for their animal will be charged $25. more

June 15, 2000
China plagued by locust
Huge swarms of locusts have been destroying crops in northern China - a region which is already suffering from its worst drought in more than a decade.

In the worst affected areas of Xinjiang, local farmers are reporting infestation levels of 4,000 locusts per square metre. According to one local paper, this is the biggest outbreak of locusts in a quarter of a century.

Locusts apparently thrive during droughts.

May 13, 2000
German call for EU superstate
JOSCHKA FISCHER, Germany's foreign minister, called yesterday for a European federal superstate with its own elected president and written constitution.

Warning that European Union enlargement "will hopelessly overload" the current system, he proposed a European government with "far-reaching executive powers". He said: "If we are to meet this historic challenge, we must put into place the last brick in the building of European integration, namely political integration." He predicted that the introduction of the euro would force the pace towards integration in defence and security.

Mr Fischer accepted that not all EU member states shared his ambitions, proposing that a vanguard led by France and Germany press ahead with full federal integration. Laggards would catch up at their own speed. more

April 16, 2000
Russia brokers arms deal to rebuild Iraq's air defences
RUSSIAN military officials have helped to negotiate a multi-million-pound arms deal with Saddam Hussein that will enable the Iraqi leader to undertake a radical overhaul of his country's air defences. more

March 21, 2000
Pope preaches peace in Israel
The Pope has arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of his groundbreaking visit to Israel, preaching peace and reconcilation in a land fraught with political and religious tensions.

February 13, 2000
Putin to restart military training for schoolboys in Russia
MILITARY training for Russian schoolboys, including lessons in patriotism, has been ordered by the country's acting president, Vladimir Putin, in a move which analysts see as a worrying return to the Cold War era.

Some military experts view the step as a signal that Mr Putin, the favourite to win next month's presidential election, is less interested in democratic reforms than in restoring the prestige of the Russian army and security services. Earlier this month Mr Putin called up 20,000 reservists and announced a 50 per cent increase on arms spending. more

January 21, 2000
Moon glows red
The exact colour the Moon turns during a lunar eclipse is not easily predicted and depends on the amount of dust in the Earth's upper atmosphere. more

January 6, 2000
Earthquake Activity, Deaths Above Average in 1999
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world experienced more than the usual number of number of major earthquakes in 1999 and deaths caused by them were double the annual average, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. more

YEAR 1999

December 20, 1999
Quake hazard map released
The greatest hazard areas contain half the world's largest cities. Efforts are now under way to determine exactly how many people live in the most dangerous areas. more

December 15, 1999
Implantable in Humans - With Applications in E-business to Business Security, Health Care and Criminal Justice
Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSX - news) today announced that it has acquired the patent rights to a miniature digital transceiver -- which it has named ``Digital Angel®'' -- that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing a tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security, locating lost or missing individuals, tracking the location of valuable property and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients. more

December 6, 1999
EU defense force outlined
European Union foreign ministers have agreed an outline for a rapid reaction force of up to 60,000 troops by 2003.

At a meeting in Brussels, they approved a report submitted by the Finnish EU presidency for discussion and endorsement by the 15 heads of government at their summit in Helsinki this weekend. more

November 21, 1999
IraWorld leaders promote 'Third Way' for new century
FLORENCE, Italy (AP) -- Six like-minded world leaders gathered in an ornate Renaissance palace on Sunday and explored how best to spread the expected benefits of the 21st century's global economy and technological advancements.

The six -- Blair, U.S. President Bill Clinton, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian Premier Massimo D'Alema and Brazilian President Fernando Enrique Cardoso -- are members of the "Third Way" club. more

November 11, 1999
Iran & Iraq agree on trade and improve relations with Egypt
Iraq and Iran have signed three agreements on economic and trade co-operation and the expansion of trade at a ceremony in Baghdad. more
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharazi, says he hopes to see relations with Egypt restored at the highest level soon. more

November 11, 1999
UN warn femaine in Sudan
The United Nations and international aid agencies have warned that the population of the Nuba mountains in central Sudan will face severe food shortages next year. more

November 10, 1999
Storm Warnings for the Sun
Government Sets Scale for Disrupting Explosions in 2000
The sun will greet the new millennium by turning angry, erupting into the most active part of its 11-year cycle with outbursts of energy that can threaten satellites, electrical power and spacewalking astronauts. more

October 1, 1999
America Earthquake hits Mexico
A powerful earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale has struck Mexico, causing widespread damage in the south of the country. more

September 30, 1999
An e-commerce barcode 'tattoo' scanned image verifies buyer to seller
By Jon E. Dougherty
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
A patent has been issued for a technique enabling an invisible tattoo to be placed under the skin of a consumer purchasing goods and services online, according to a report published by computer giant Compaq. more, and patent

September 21, 1999
Earthquake in Taiwan
Taiwan is hit by a quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, which causes damage to every town in the island. more about earthquake

September 4, 1999
Land-for-peace agreement signed
After weeks of tough negotiations, Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority (PA/PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat signed a new land-for-peace agreement Saturday.

August 26, 1999
270,000 North Koreans died of famine between 1995 and 1998
SEOUL, South Korea (August 26, 1999 10:24 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - About 270,000 North Koreans are believed to have died of famine between 1995 and 1998, according to figures released Friday by the South Korean government. more ...

August 20, 1999
Quake death toll exceed 40,000 and 500,000 homeless
Fears are growing that the death toll from Turkey's devastating earthquake could eventually exceed 40,000, making it the country's worst this century. more .... Number of homeless could top 500,000 in Turkey

Earthquakes have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the last 100 years and improvements in technology have only slightly reduced the death toll.

17 August 1999
An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale rocks the Turkish cities of Izmit and Istanbul, leaving hundreds dead and many more injured.

March 1999
Uttar Pradesh in northern India is hit by two earthquakes in as many days, killing more than 100.

January 1999
A shock measuring 6.0 kills up to 1,000 in the Colombian town of Armenia.

July 1998:
More than 1,000 are killed after a tsunami or sea wave, caused by an undersea earthquake, wipes out communities on the north-western coast of Papua New Guinea.

June 1998:
Adana in south-eastern Turkey is shaken by an earthquake measuring 6.3 which claims 144 lives. A week later the same area suffers two strong aftershocks, leaving more than 1,000 people injured.

May 1998:
Northern Afghanistan is hit by a major earthquake, killing 4,000 people.

February 1997:
A quake measuring 5.5 tears apart rural areas of north-western Iran, killing 1,000 people. Three months later a stronger tremor, measuring 7.1, kills 1,560 in eastern Iran.

May 1995:
The far eastern island of Sakhalin is hit by a massive earthquake, measuring 7.5, which claims the lives of 1,989 Russians.

January 1995:
The Hyogo quake hits the city of Kobe in Japan, killing 6,430 people.

June 1994:
Around 1,000 people are killed by an earthquake and ensuing landslide in Colombia.

September 1993:
Around 22,000 villagers are killed in western and southern India.

1990:
More than 40,000 people die in a tremor in the northern Iranian province of Gilan.

October 1989:
The Loma Prieta earthquake hits California, killing 68 people and causing $7m of damage.

December 1988:
An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale devastates northwest Armenia, killing 25,000 people.

September 1985:
Mexico City is shaken by a huge earthquake which razes buildings and kills 10,000 people.

1980:
Hundreds are killed by tremors which ripple through southern Italy.

1976:
The Chinese city of Tangshan is reduced to rubble in a quake that claims up to 500,000 lives.

1960:
The world's strongest recorded earthquake devastates Chile, with a reading of 9.5 on the Richter scale. A tsunami 30 feet (10 m) high eliminates entire villages in Chile and kills 61 hundreds of miles away in Hawaii.

1950:
A violent land earthquake hits Assam in north-eastern India. The shock sent needles off seismographs but was officially logged as a 9.0 on the Richter scale.

1948:
The Fukui quake, centred in the East China Sea, devastates western Japan, killing 3,770.

1931:
Britain's most violent earthquake, with its epicentre on the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, is recorded at 5.5 on the Richter scale. There are few casualties.

1923:
The Great Kanto earthquake, with its epicentre just outside Tokyo, claims the lives of 142,800 people in the Japanese capital.

1906:
San Francisco is hit by a series of violent shocks which last up to a minute. Between 700 and 3,000 people die either from collapsing buildings or in the subsequent fire.

July 28, 1999
Israel Government opening up to Europe
A new relationship with Europe seems under way, Foreign Ministry officials said yesterday, as they assessed the steady stream of visitors passing through Jerusalem these days. more ...

July 18, 1999
Barak predicts peace deals in 15 months
NEW YORK (July 18) - Prime Minister Ehud Barak has set another deadline for himself: After campaigning on the promise that he would bring the IDF out of Lebanon within a year, Barak raised the ante this weekend and set a 15-month time frame for negotiating peace with Syria and finalizing agreements with the Palestinians.

July 16, 1999
Russian deputy premier says army can't afford new weapons (nandotimes)
MOSCOW - The Russian army is so broke it can't afford to buy new weapons, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said in an interview published Friday. more ...

July 11, 1999
Prodi lays foundations for 'United States of Europe'
ROMANO PRODI, the European Commission president-elect, is planning the biggest centralisation of power in the history of Brussels politics, laying the final foundations for a full-blown federalist super-state. more ...

June 14, 1999
The misery of 98 (BBC News)
Natural disasters in 1998 were responsible for creating more refugees than wars or other armed conflicts, says the 1999 World Disasters Report.
The year's crop of disasters, including Hurricane Mitch, the El Nino climate switch in the Pacific and the associated La Nina, were the worst ever known. The report is published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
And the federation's president, Dr Astrid Heiberg, warns of the possibility that two growing trends may combine to create future disasters on an unprecedented scale.

Nature worsens poverty
"Everyone is aware of the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation on the one hand, and the social problems of increasing poverty and growing shanty towns on the other.
"But when these two factors collide, you have a new scale of catastrophe."
Dr Heiberg says the number of people needing help from the federation's member societies because of floods and earthquakes had grown in six years from under 500,000 to more than 5.5 million.
The report says that falling soil fertility, drought, flooding and deforestation drove 25 million people from their homes last year. Many of these environmental refugees joined already fragile urban squatter communities.

Problems mount
It says analysis of the consequences of hurricanes and other climatic changes shows a trend towards "super-disasters" triggered by the weather.
When El Nino struck Indonesia, for example, the result was not only the worst drought for 50 years, but a whole chain reaction of crises.
The rice crop failed, the price of imported rice quadrupled, the value of the currency fell by 80%, and there were food riots in the capital, Jakarta.
Outside the cities, vast forest fires filled the region's skies with smoke. The report says El Nino caused fires, droughts and floods which killed 21,000 people.

Tuberculosis rates
In China, 180 million people were affected by floods caused in part by deforestation in the Yangtze basin. And bitter winter weather in Russia struck a society with 44 million people living in poverty.
Tuberculosis rates have now risen sharply, and a million children are homeless. The federation's director of disaster policy, Peter Walker, says: "The knee-jerk reaction to disaster response is not working.
"We have to structure and fund our emergency service internationally, the same way we do domestically. We don't wait until a house catches fire, then raise money for the fire department."
more ...

June 14, 1999
5 faiths together in Jerusalem (Nandotimes)
JERUSALEM - Though Israeli officials would not meet with him, the Dalai Lama brought five faiths together in Jerusalem Sunday to promote unity among theologians. The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader told a conference of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Shintos that a variety of religions were needed to help different peoples heal. more ...

March 31, 1999
Europe agrees military co-operation plan (BBC news)
European Union leaders have agreed on a common defence strategy, giving the EU the capacity to organise its own military operations independently of the United States and Nato, if need be. more ...

March 31, 1999
The Pesach Sacrifice
On Wednesday 31st March, the day before Pesach, The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement performed a symbolic Pesach sacrifice on a hill overlooking the Temple Mount. This is the third Pesach that the Faithful Movement have performed this sacrifice. more ...

January 1, 1999
Europeans await euro currency
Given all the cross-border action, people here are especially eager for the day when the euro becomes part of everyday life. But while Europe's common currency debuted on financial markets Jan. 1, colorful euro bills and coins aren't set to enter circulation until Jan. 1, 2002. more ...

BEFORE 1999

November 10, 1994
Noah's Arked in CIA Spy Photos
In the secret world of intelligence, it goes by the bland name of the "Ararat Anomaly." But former intelligence officials say soon-to-be-released U.S. spy photographs of the odd formation high on Turkey's Mount Ararat could reveal something far more explosive: the remnants of Noah's Ark, the ancient vessel from the Bible that safely preserved a pair of every creature on Earth in the midst of a global flood. more ...

November 10, 1994
Red Heifers in Bible Numbers 19
An orthodox rabbi laid his hands on Clyde's perfect red heifers. This was the first time in over two thousand years a rabbi had touched such a cow. It was a historical event. Now, a new, non-profit corporation, Canaan Land Restoration of Israel, Inc., with Clyde Lott as president will ship plane loads of red cattle to Israel, 140 heifers per load. The first shipment is scheduled for August 1998. Because of this many Christian people are going to be blessed, blessed by giving red heifers to this restoration program. more ...

June 7, 1967
Six-day War
Jerusalem reunified on third day of war; Jews regain access to Western Wall of Temple; Knesset guarantees free access to all holy places Israel conquers West Bank of Jordan River

May 14, 1948
State of Israel is born (Jerusalem Post)
The first independent Jewish State in 19 centuries was born in Tel Aviv as the British Mandate over Palestine came to an end at midnight on Friday, and it was immediately subjected to the test of fire. more ...