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To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>, Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup 2 <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Subject: News of Interest
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 16:29:41 -0800
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From: Eddie Chumney
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: News of Interest

NEWS OF INTEREST

DRUMBEATS OF WAR

NORTH KOREA SAYS IT AND JAPAN ON BRINK OF WAR
February 1, 1999 Tokyo (AP)

North Korean state-run media on Monday accused Japan of bringing
the two nations to the brink of war by pressing ahead with plans
to build spy satellites and a missile defense system. The
militant tone of the North Korean statement was similar to the
rhetoric it has used repeatedly in references to Japan, South
Korea and the United States.

"North Korean-Japanese relations have deteriorated, and if this
leads to a military confrontation, Japan itself will be the one
destroyed,'' the government's Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee was
quoted as saying on North Korean Central Radio, monitored by Japan's
Radio Press in Tokyo.

PREPARATION FOR WAR

NORTH KOREA SAID NOW 'MORE VOLATILE AND UNPREDICTABLE'
February 2, 1999 By John Diamond, Associated Press Washington
(AP)

North Korea's military discipline appears to be eroding, but
there is no reduction in the massive threat the communist nation
poses to U.S. and South Korean forces, the nation's top
intelligence officials told lawmakers Tuesday. In a wide-ranging
hearing, the officials named Korea, Iraq and international
techno-terrorism as the key national security challenges.

"I can hardly overstate my concern about North Korea,'' CIA
Director George Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"In nearly all respects, the situation there has become more
volatile and unpredictable.''

Wretched living conditions deteriorate further, food shortages
are acute, and few heavy industrial plants make anything,
according to U.S. intelligence. Crime and a lack of discipline, even
in military ranks, are more common and citizens are more likely to
blame North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, for systemic problems.

Army Lt. Gen. Patrick Hughes, head of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, cited intelligence reports that describe North Korean
soldiers out of uniform, marketplace activity going on without
governmental control, and frequent disruptions in the course of a
military unit's training.

"All of this will encourage the North to rely still more heavily
on risky brinkmanship in its dealings with the United States,''
Tenet said.

Still, North Korea continues to expand its conventional military
forces and its ballistic missile capability. U.S. intelligence
is closely following a massive North Korean construction project
at Kumchang-ni, an underground complex large enough to house
facilities for making plutonium and other weapons-grade material
for nuclear weapons, Tenet said. "We are deeply concerned that
North Korea has a covert program,'' Tenet said.

Pyongyang is also developing a longer-range missile, the Taepo
Dong 2, that could carry heavy payloads to Hawaii and Alaska and
lighter-weight weapons to parts of the rest of the United States,
Tenet said.

APOSTASY AND ECUMENISM

LESBIAN CLERGYWOMAN RETAINS JOB IN NORWAY'S STATE CHURCH
February 1, 1999 By Doug Mellgren, Associated Press Oslo, Norway
(AP)

A lesbian clergy woman barred from the pulpit for marrying her
homosexual partner was allowed to resume preaching Monday in a
dispute that threatens to split Norway's state church. Siri
Sunde, a chaplain in southeastern Norway's Hamar diocese, was
suspended from her clerical duties in June 1997 after she entered a
gay marriage. Gay marriages are legal in Norway, with all the rights
of heterosexual marriages except church weddings and the right to
adopt.

The state Lutheran Church ruled in November 1997 that clergy who
enter homosexual partnerships could not hold jobs that require
ordination. However, the bishop in Sunde's diocese, Rosmarie
Kohn, on Monday announced that she would not follow that ruling,
and that Sunde would immediately return to her chaplain's post.

"With the same justification the church has used to change its
view in other cases, it must change its view about homo-
sexuality,'' Kohn said in announcing her decision. She said that at a
time when many people have casual sexual relations, and even treat sex
as a commodity to be sold, the church should welcome those choosing
the commitment of marriage, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
"There is not a theological basis for excluding clergy for entering a
partnership.'' said Kohn.

PHOTOS OF JESUS AND GAYS TO BE SHOWN IN SWEDISH PARLIAMENT
February 4, 1999 By Jim Heintz, Associated Press Stockholm,
Sweden (AP)

A photo exhibit depicting Jesus among homosexuals and as an AIDS
victim will be shown in Sweden's parliament building despite
objections from conservative leaders. The "Ecce Homo'' exhibit
by Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson has sparked controversy
since it was first shown last summer in Sweden, which is
generally liberal about homosexuality and gives legal recognition to
gay partnership. But the decision to show it in the Riksdag has
outraged politicians like former Prime Minister Carl Bildt, leader of
the largest conservative party, the Moderates.

REV. MOON CALLS FOR NEW UN-BACKED RELIGIOUS BODY FOR WORLD PEACE
Copyright 1999 Nando Media 1999 Agence France-Press Seoul
February 5, 1999

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church, on
Friday called for an inter-faith UN-backed religious body to work for
world peace. Moon, who had returned to his home country to conduct a
mass wedding of 40,000 couples here Sunday, said a new United
Nations-related body was needed in the next century as other peace
efforts had been "ultimately ineffective." "Only if these efforts are
supported by the more internal ones of religion, education and culture
can ideal results be secured," the controversial religious leader said
in a statement.

ORTHODOX CHURCH IN ROMANIA INVITES POPE
Weekend News Today By Kelly Pagatpatan Source: (AP) Fri Feb 5,
1999

The Romanian Orthodox Church has invited Pope John Paul II to
visit the predominately Orthodox country in May. The invitation
announcement came as a surprise Friday, since the Orthodox Church has
been mired in a bitter dispute with Eastern Rite Catholics over some
2,500 Catholic churches seized by the Communists in 1948 and given to
the Orthodox. Pope Johy Paul II, who has been seeking to improve
relations between Orthodox and Catholic Christians, expressed his wish
to visit Romania last year. Romanian President Emil Constantinescu
invited the pontiff last July, but the Romanian Orthodox Church
invitation was necessary, too.

COMMENT: CLINTON PSALMS OFF REPUBLICAN OVER BRUNCH WITH GOD
By Mark Steyn London Telegraph February 5, 1999

"I want you to know that I care for you and I love you," Oklahoma
Republican Steve Largent told the President, "and that's one of the
mysteries of Jesus."

I'll say. They were both at the Hilton for the annual National
Prayer Breakfast, one of those opportunities to flaunt his faith
that Bill Clinton never passes up.

The President's religion is yet another mystery: in one of the
most striking examples of his ability to "compartmentalise", he
strolled out of his church after an Easter service, waved his
trusty Bible to the crowds, and then went back to the Oval Office to
observe the resurrection with Monica in a more personal sense.

Mr Clinton is always talking about "my God", and you can't help
feeling his God is a kind of Vegas version of those Graeco-Roman
types: a celestial lounge act with cigar and martini, unwinding
in the hot tub with the angelic hostesses, the sorta God who
knows that what counts is not how much you forgive but how much
you've got to be forgiven for.

At yesterday's ecumenical breakfast, Bill Clinton's God took His
place with more traditional Judaeo-Christian-Islamic models. The
President was joined by the nation's highest-rated radio scold, Dr
Laura, author of a new book on the Ten Commandments and hence
reluctant to concede the Clinton position that at least three of them
don't "rise to the level" of impeachment.

Y2K PROBLEM

RUSSIA TO RECEIVE Y2K SUPPORT
BBC 1/4/99

The United States is to send a group of computer experts to
Russia to help the authorities there update their computers in
time for the year 2000. Russia appealed for western help after
warning that its computer systems could fail catastrophically
because they have not been prepared for the new millennium.
Equipment vital for everyday life such as water and
communications is at risk of breaking down, and there is concern
among American officials about the safety of Russia's nuclear
missiles.

China has also warned that it has reached a critical point in
trying to resolve its computer problems before the turn of the
century.

The head of Russia's Telecommunications Commission, Alexander
Krupnov, said he could not guarantee that the country would be
ready in time. Mr Krupnov said the government had set up a
special commission headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Vladimir
Bulgak, to prevent any disruption to computer systems caused by
the bug. "Now every Russian state organisation will have to
submit quarterly reports to the government commission on its
preparedness for the year 2000," Krupnov said.

Our Moscow Correspondent, Andrew Harding, says Russia is finally
waking up to the dangers of the millennium bug having previously
played down the risks and the cost.

But Mr Krupnov said it would cost Russia $3bn to fix the problem,
money he said the government did not have. He painted a bleak picture
of water, heating and communication systems breaking down in the
middle of the harsh Russian winter. He refused to say whether it
would be safe to fly by plane.

Russia's Defence Ministry continues to insist that its weapons
systems will not be put at risk. Some analysts say Russia is
less exposed to the millenium bug because it has fewer computers
and is a less computerised society. However, it also has less
money to fix the problem.

ONE-WORLD

AMERICA'S RIFT WITH UN CHIEF WIDENING
By Christopher Lockwood, London Telegraph, in Davos 2/1/99

Disagreements over Iraq and Kosovo are leading to undeclared war
between America and the man it chose two years ago to run the
United Nations, Kofi Annan. If the latest efforts to secure
peace in the Balkans fail, and Nato launches air strikes against
the Serbs, one casualty will be the UN and the authority of its
secretary general. For the second time in weeks, America and
Britain will send in military aircraft without the backing of the UN
Security Council, striking a blow to the concept of collective
security.

This weekend, Mr Annan has been at Davos in Switzerland for the
World Economic Forum's annual meeting. Aware of the political
sensitivities, Mr Annan has declined to discuss openly his
differences with America. But he is letting it be known that he
is unhappy with America's policy of ignoring the UN if the
Security Council does not vote the way America wants, as it has
done in Iraq and perhaps now in Kosovo.

"A year ago, America worked through the Security Council and the
Secretary General's office to secure a deal with Iraq on weapons
inspections", said a source close to Mr Annan. But in December,
after further Iraqi provocations, America and Britain
unilaterally launched air strikes.

Kosovo has opened a second rift between America and the UN. At
American insistence, Nato declared at the weekend that it would
unilaterally use military force against Serbian targets if the
violence in Kosovo continued, despite strong statements opposing
this from Yevgeny Primakov, the Russia Prime Minister, who was
also in Davos and consulting Mr Annan at the weekend.

In an interview yesterday with BBC World television, Mr Annan
came nearer than ever to a public complaint. "As Secretary
General, I represent the entire membership of the UN, and member
countries ought to respect that, and not put too much pressure on me",
he said. He accepted that a serious "fault-line" had opened within
the Security Council, and that his honeymoon with America was over.

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