To: "'bprlist@egroups.com'" <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: RE: [bprlist] ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THE FAITH
From: "Elphick, David (WS)"
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 10:23:13 +1030

This quote:

'Ramadan requires Muslims to abstain from food, drink and sensual pleasures
from dawn to sunset.'

suggests 1Tim 4: '1 But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and
teachings of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, being seared in their own
conscience, 3 forbidding to marry, saying to abstain from foods which God
has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know
the truth.'

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Sent: Tuesday, 28 November 2000 4:33 am
To: bprlist bprlist
Subject: [bprlist] ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THE FAITH

Published Sunday, November 26, 2000, in the Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/content/today/news/broward/digdocs/012130.htm

ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THE FAITH

 There are an estimated 6 million Muslims in the United States and 1.2
billion
worldwide. Only about 20 percent of Muslims live in the Arab-speaking world,
and Indonesia has the largest Muslim population.

 There are nearly 2,000 mosques, Islamic schools and Islamic centers in the
United States.

 Islam has five pillars of faith: a declaration of faith in God and Muhammad
as the messenger of God; five daily prayers; charitable giving; pilgrimage
to
Mecca; and fasting during Ramadan.

 Ramadan requires Muslims to abstain from food, drink and sensual pleasures
from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is based on the lunar calendar, which means
that
it begins about 11 days earlier each year.

 Ramadan ends with a celebration and feast known as Eid ul-Fitr.
Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations

____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975371373/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Wireless Net news
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 19:16:33 -0500

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,38803,00.html

Free the Wireless Net!
by Leander Kahney

3:00 a.m. Sep. 19, 2000 PDT

Five years ago, do-it-yourself activist James Stevens rigged up a
wireless network that let his London neighbors share the high
bandwidth Internet connection he'd installed.

These days, Stevens has far more ambitious plans: He wants to
wirelessly network all of London by using relatively cheap,
off-the-shelf parts. Stevens' project is one of several regional,
free-wireless initiatives trying to combat the high cost of Internet
access.

With the help of dozens of volunteers, Stevens is hoping to create a
city-wide wireless network, built and maintained by the users
themselves.

Unlike the commercial wireless networks, Stevens' Consume the Net
network will offer free access to anyone with a computer and a US$100
wireless networking card.

"Broadband is prohibitively expensive," Stevens said. "A reasonable
level of connectivity is absent. Technology gives us the opportunity
to do it ourselves."

The network will use wireless cards based on the 802.11 ethernet
standard and manufactured by vendors such as Lucent and
Apple. Networked computers will communicate over the unlicensed 2.4
GHz range of the spectrum, the same frequency used by cordless phones
and
Bluetooth devices.

Data between computers can be transmitted at a rate of up to 8
Mbps. Access to the Internet will be limited by the speed of the
primary broadband, cable modem, or DSL connection, which is often
significantly slower.

Computers will have to be within 45 meters (148 feet) of the closest
broadband connection, but the group is also experimenting with booster
antennas to extend coverage to between 1 and 4 kilometers.

Stevens hopes that enough volunteers with broadband connections will
invest about $1,000 to hook up their Net feeds to wireless base
stations and booster antennas so that the project can stretch across
the entire city.

So far, the group has attracted about a dozen committed members, and
more than 180 people have subscribed to the group's mailing list.

Stevens said the first three nodes of the network will be up and
running sometime this week. The nodes will cover about a square mile of
East London, which, while one of the poorest parts of the city, is
becoming a hotbed for new-media business.

Stevens, a firm believer in cooperative action, said Consume isn't
just about sharing broadband costs, but is also an attempt to bring
Net access to those who can't afford it.

"We'll put up this data cloud and anyone in the vicinity can tune in," he
said.

Stevens has no plans to commercialize the project. "There will be
plenty of spin-off opportunities later on. This is the new way of the Net
-- user constructed networks," he said. "We're demonstrating the
potential without outside commercial pressure."

Stevens has been active in cooperative projects for years. He also
founded Backspace, an arts community that provided free Net access to the
homeless and others from a converted warehouse in South London.

"It's a great idea," said Steve Tyler, a director of Mase Integration and
Communications, which is networking hundreds of buildings for Newham
Borough Council, one of London's local authorities, using essentially the
same equipment.

Tyler cautioned, however, that because the network operates in the
unlicensed 2.4 GHz range, there could be interference from other
devices that use the same frequency.

"It's not a problem yet," he said. "But it will probably become a
problem in a year or two. If someone else puts up their own antenna
and it interferes, there's nothing anyone can do about it."

Steven's group also has to grapple with a number of other
obstacles. The nodes of the network require specific software to
connect; the network is purely line-of-sight and won't penetrate trees and
houses; and there could be interference problems with signals bouncing off
buildings.

On the plus side, the group has access to a sophisticated
network-mapping tool called Web Stalker, which was commissioned for
the troubled Millennium Dome project. Web Stalker will generate a 3-D map
of the network to help users find the nearest access point.

Stevens is not alone in his desire to create community-run wireless
networks. Similar efforts are underway in Seattle, Boston and San
Francisco.

In Seattle, Matt Westervelt is trying to coordinate a similar
802.11-standard wireless network in the city's residential Capitol
Hill district.

The plan is to allow free wireless access to Net-connected computers
at home, Westervelt said. He had been a subscriber to Metricom's
Ricochet service, but tired of the monthly charges.

"We're building our own infrastructure," said Westervelt, a systems
administrator for Real Networks. "You shouldn't have to pay a monthly fee
to be on the airwaves. You should be able to do this for free."

Like Stevens, Westervelt has experience jerry-rigging guerrilla
networks. A few years ago he shared a T1 line with his neighbors in
Seattle's Pioneer Square by stringing Ethernet cables through windows and
across alleyways.

Westervelt and his colleagues have been running about half a dozen
independent wireless nodes from apartments in the area since June, but
face the problem of hooking them up into one seamless network.

He said they need more volunteers to fill in the gaps or someone on a
neighboring hill whom they can bounce signals off of. The group also is
toying with the idea of charging users who don't contribute to the network
by running a node.

Seattle Wireless recently linked up with Xlan, a project started by
Greg Daly, an engineering student at the University of Washington who is
designing homemade booster antennae for 802.11 networks.

Daly said his designs will allow broadband-connected users to share
their connections with others up to 20 kilometers (12.42 miles) away
by setting up inexpensive base stations hooked to a booster antenna.

"Right now a lot of people have cable or DSL connections, but people
down the street don't because of distances," he said. "We hope to help
eliminate that."

Daly has designs for a 4-kilometer directional antenna that costs
about $20, and a 20-kilometer directional antenna based on a used
satellite dish. He expects to publish detailed plans for the antennae on
his site within a month.

In Boston and surrounding areas, Guerrilla Net members are creating a
decentralized, wireless alternative to the Internet.

"The purpose is to ensure that the flow of information is not
obstructed, captured, analyzed, modified, or logged," said Brian
Oblivion, a member of computer security site L0pht Industries.

"This requires a networking fabric which lies outside of governments,
commercial Internet service providers, telecommunications companies, and
dubious Internet regulatory committees," he wrote in an email.

Oblivion said that while the project is centered in Boston, it has
"hundreds" of interested parties worldwide, particularly in the United
States and Europe. If there are enough people in a particular location,
they set up a "cell," Oblivion said.

http://public.wsj.com/sn/y/SB975000515459708837.html

Tech-Savvy Web Users Are Taking
Indoor Wireless Technology Outside

By Kevin J. Delaney
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

LONDON -- Julian Priest is walking east down Clink Street away from
his office. He's holding his laptop in both hands and surfing the Web as
he goes through an enviable five-megabits-per-second link to his desktop
computer. A BBC correspondent appears in a small box on the screen,
delivering a report on the U.S. elections, just like you would see on
television. "It's pretty cool," Mr. Priest says with a laugh.

The 31-year-old technical director of a Web agency is one of a growing
number of tech-adept individuals who are taking inexpensive
wireless-networking technology designed for inside homes and offices and
putting it to work outdoors. What they've found is that they can get
Internet access as far as a kilometer away from their transmitters -- and
at more than twice the speed that the much-touted next-generation cellular
systems will offer. That means they can surf the Web at blazing speeds
while sitting in a park or cafe, for example, access demanding multimedia
applications, and even make voice calls over the Internet. The basic gear
required is available off-the-shelf for less than 1,000 euros ($843). And
the radio spectrum in which it operates, it turns out, is generally free
to use. (Outdoor connections can, however, run afoul of the law in some
countries, including France.)

That's not bad when you consider that operators in Europe have plunked
down as much as 8.5 billion euros for national next-generation wireless
licenses and will spend billions more to build the required
infrastructure. When it's rolled out in most places in coming years, the
cellular data-transfer speed will likely max out around two megabits per
second, about one-fourth of what wireless local area networking, or
wireless LAN, technology offers today.

That said, wireless LANs have significant limitations that make it
extremely unlikely they will compete with the next-generation cellular
services. For starters, the systems being patched together by Mr. Priest
and others are nowhere near as reliable as what the telephone operators
will provide. They aren't backed up by the industrial software and
computer systems that handle billing, client accounts, and assure a
general quality of service. The signals are much weaker, easily blocked by
buildings and thick walls; inside buildings, they are often limited to
about 70 meters. The transmission points, or nodes, set up by individuals
remain scattered to date, with little or no infrastructure to let users
roam and connect through anything other than their home nodes. And the
ultimate speed at which users can wirelessly surf the Web is determined by
the Internet link with which they are communicating and the number of
other people connecting at the same time; a lot of users or a slow line
between a node and the Internet mean the experience is less impressive.

But for Mr. Priest and James Stevens, who have begun gathering the
wireless LAN actors in England through an association called
Consume.net (www.consume.net ), that's beside the point. The
technology lets tech hobbyists tinker in a way that they've never
really been able to in the heavily regulated wireless sector.

"There's a space to do stuff with freely available equipment that if
you try to do it another way people charge you a lot of money," says
Mr. Priest.

He and Mr. Stevens see community wireless LAN networks as an extension
of
the open-source software movement, letting engineers and users experiment
at the same time they're enjoying high-speed connections. And if they wind
up building a serious network at the same time -- sort of the wireless
equivalent of Linux -- so much the better.

For the moment, it remains a tinkerer's enterprise. The basic
configuration involves inexpensive wireless-transmission base stations
compatible with the 802.11b standard, available from companies like Apple
Computer Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc., Symbol
Technologies Inc. and usually attached to an Internet-connected personal
computer. Wireless networkers often then add on booster antennas, though
there are strict legal limits in Europe on how much they can increase the
signal. People who want to log on to the system just need one of the
wireless LAN cards that are available for well under 200 euros.

In fact, U.K. regulations essentially prevent anyone from making a
profit on services that operate in the 2.4-gigahertz band, which is
generally reserved for industrial, scientific and medical
use. Wireless experts often refer to it as "trash" spectrum because
there are so many radio transmissions on it. It's the frequency used
by the new Bluetooth technology. And it turns out even microwave ovens
emit signals in this band.

But that hasn't stopped individuals around the world from setting up
public-access points in the hopes of spurring the growth of broad
wireless LAN networks. There's an association in San Francisco called
SFLan that started rolling out a network in the Presidio neighborhood
about three years ago. Today, it has over half a dozen nodes in the city
through which users can connect to the Internet for free. Similar
nonprofit organizations have taken root elsewhere, including Seattle and
Stockholm.

Using a wireless LAN, students at Wake Forest University in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, can log on to the university's network from
sites throughout the campus, including some outdoor locations. There's
even a taxi in Aspen, Colorado, that connects to the Internet through a
wireless LAN network set up in that town.

What about the telecommunications operators, many of whom have plunked
down a fortune for cellular licenses and infrastructure? Believe it or
not, they're embracing the unlicensed technology in some instances. Take
Sweden's Telia AB, for example. The telephone company has built its own
Homerun-branded system, which it has begun installing in hotels, airports,
train stations, and other public places. Homerun's business service costs
1,500 Swedish kronor (173 euros) per month, with a 5,000 kronor set-up
fee. The company is also trying to sell its proprietary software and
expertise in the area to other operators and Internet service providers.

Ultimately, most of the tinkerers and the operators agree that
wireless LANs aren't much of a threat to the anticipated
next-generation cellular networks. What they are predicting instead is
that laptops and handsets will be able to connect using both technologies
and switch to the cellular networks when they go out of LAN range.

Back on Clink Street, Mr. Priest gets about 100 meters from his office
when his Internet connection is blocked by an immense brick building. The
BBC correspondent disappears. "Now is when someone else's node should
pick
up," Mr. Priest says.

There is clearly still work to be done.
Write to Kevin J. Delaney at kevin.delaney@wsj.com

via: transhumantech@egroups.com

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975371316/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Arutz-7 News (11/27/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 19:16:33 -0500

Arutz Sheva News Service
  <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Monday, Nov. 27, 2000 / Cheshvan 29, 5761

***see IMRA announcement following news

TODAY'S HEADLINES:
   1. KNESSET PROTECTS JERUSALEM
   2. FUND FOR KFAR DAROM
   3. PALESTINIAN SHOOTING
   4. SHARON WILL TALK UNITY AFTER TOPPLING-MOTION PASSES
   5. MORE VIOLENCE EXPECTED IN NORTH
   6. INCITEMENT: TARGET-DEPENDENT?
   7. TRAVEL IN YESHA
   8. REMINDER: TEMPLE MOUNT IS HOLIEST JEWISH SITE ON EARTH
   9. FIVE TERRORISTS KILLED
   10. SUPPLIES TO GAZA
   11. IDF GENERAL: PALESTINIANS LIKELY KILLED 12-YR.-OLD BOY

1. KNESSET PROTECTS JERUSALEM The Knesset voted in favor of the
final reading of the Jerusalem Bill today. The bill stipulates that a majo rity of
61 MKs is required to approve any change to the borders of Jerusalem.
Likud MK Yehoshua Matza, who sponsored the bill, said that it would head
off any attempts by the government to implement the "unprecedented
concessions" made by Prime Minister Barak in Jerusalem.

2. FUND FOR KFAR DAROM Two of the eight children who were wounded in
the Kfar Darom bus bombing last week were officially released from the
hospital today - but one of them, Matania Daifani, chose to remain in the
hospital with his mother, who was also wounded in the attack. Rachel
Hadad returned home. The Boneh family, which lost their daughter/sister
Mira Amitai - mother of 4 - in the bombing, visited the wounded in the
hospital today on their way to an end-of -shiva memorial service in Kfar
Darom this afternoon. Doctors at Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva reported
that Tehilla Cohen, who lost both her legs (below the knee) in the bombing,
is recuperating; her two siblings, Orit and Yisrael, each lost part of thei r right
leg.

The town of Kfar Darom has set up a fund for the families of the victims -
including the family of 34-year-old father-of-six Gabi Biton, the Amitai fa mily,
the Cohen family, and those of the other wounded children. Donations can be
deposited in Bank MaMizrachi, branch #491, account #103681, or written out
to "Terror-Victims' Families Fund in Kfar Darom" and mailed to Kfar Darom,
M.P. Hof Aza, 79720 Israel.

3. PALESTINIAN SHOOTING Palestinians detonated roadside bombs this
afternoon as IDF patrol jeeps passed near the Shomron town of Elon Moreh
and on the Karni-Netzarim road. The soldiers returned fire. The Shomron
bomb went off in the same place at which Palestinians opened fire three
times at army patrols over the past week. Other IDF patrol jeeps, near
Kibbutz Alumim in the Negev and on the Karni-Netzarim, were also fired
upon today; the soldiers returned fire.

Palestinian terrorists also shot at Shdemah, south of Bethlehem; Kalkilyeh;
an IDF post in the Jewish Quarter of Hevron; Erez; and Rachel's Tomb. The
army is allowing Jewish worshippers to pray at Rachel's Tomb, but "at a slo w
pace," they claim. There was violent rioting at intersections south of Hev ron,
and Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli vehicles on the Tunnels Highway,
causing its intermittent closing.

4. SHARON WILL TALK UNITY AFTER TOPPLING-MOTION PASSES The
Supreme Court will not rule today on the Likud's suit against Knesset
Speaker Burg's decision to require a 61-MK majority for the first reading; but
it appears - according to Likud sources - that more than that number will v ote
for the bill in any event. Shas sources say that Likud leader Ariel Sharon
told Shas leader Eli Yeshai that after the Knesset votes tomorrow to approv e
the first reading of the bill to topple the government, he will be ready to  talk
seriously with Prime Minister Barak about forming a unity government.
Barak said that an emergency-government will have "no problem" signing
international agreements, and that he would strive now for a "gradated" fin al
agreement with the Palestinian Authority. MK Yosef Lapid (Shinui), who has
been mediating between Barak and Sharon, said that the two are close to an
agreement on five points of contention.

A meeting of Labor party ministers was marked by high tension and mutual
veiled accusations between Prime Minister Barak and Minister Shimon
Peres. Barak said that "voices from within our party against a unity
government" do not reflect well on the Labor party, and "the concessions th at
have already been made to Arafat cannot be taken further left by anyone who
is honest." Barak also said, "There seem to be ministers competing with
each other to see who can offer more concessions to Arafat." Peres replied ,
"No one has offered him more than you did; don't smear us." Justice
Minister Yossi Beilin said, "I'd rather be in the opposition than be in a u nity
government with Ariel Sharon."

5. MORE VIOLENCE EXPECTED IN NORTH Sgt.-Maj. Halil Taher, an IDF
tracker who was killed yesterday morning near the Lebanese border by a
Hizbullah bomb, was buried at the Moslem cemetery in Acco today. He was
the first soldier killed by Hizbullah since the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon  six
months ago - although the condition of the three soldiers kidnapped by
Hizbullah on Oct. 7 is unknown. Health Minister Roni Milo said today that
hospitals and health services in the north must prepare themselves for the
increased violence that is expected in the near future in the north.

6. INCITEMENT: TARGET-DEPENDENT? The Supreme Court ruled today
that Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane is guilty of incitement to rebellion - minutes
before it acquitted journalist Mohammed Jabarin of incitement to violence.
Kahane, a leader of the Kahane Chai movement and a proponent of his late
father Rabbi Meir Kahane's ideas, was found guilty of distributing flyers
during the 1992 election campaign calling on the IDF to bomb the Israeli-
Arab town of Um el-Fahm. He was originally found guilty of incitement to
rebellion, but the ruling was overturned upon appeal to the Supreme Court.
Today, the Court overturned its previous decision, and found that Kahane's
call "might not have the potential to lead to immediate acts of violence, b ut it
does have a strong effect on the social climate, and could lead to violence  in
the future." [Kahane's sentence of four months in prison was not re-instate d,
but Kahane was given a one-year suspended sentence.] On the other hand,
the Court reversed the conviction of Jabarin, who wrote in the early 1990's ,
"Whenever I [cheered] and threw a rock, I felt that the victory was calling  to
us, =01'Keep on throwing!'=85 Whenever I threw a firebomb, I felt that I w as
enveloped in glory and splendor=85" The Court ruled that the conviction of
Jabarin for "supporting a terrorist group" did not apply in this case, sinc e his
praise of anti-Israel violence did not mention any specific terrorist
organization.

7. TRAVEL IN YESHA IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Sha'ul Mofaz has issued a
directive forbidding army personnel from traveling throughout Yesha in non-
bullet-proof vehicles. The order includes soldiers and officers who are
residents of Yesha. IDF officers of Yesha who refused to leave their vehic les
at army roadblocks yesterday were ticketed by the military police.

Former Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu declared that
all Israelis should "keep up their normal lives," and should travel through out
the country in accordance with security guidelines. The rabbis said that t his
would encourage a sense of responsibility in the army and induce it to make
every effort to maintain high security standards. The two leaders called o n
the public to be "strong, determined and courageous." About 1,000 people,
including Sephardic Chief Rabbi Bakshi-Doron and Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef,
arrived at the Western Wall for special prayers today, in light of the dang ers
facing the nation.

8. REMINDER: TEMPLE MOUNT IS HOLIEST JEWISH SITE ON EARTH Is
Associated Press reporting objectively? In one of its articles on the Midd le
East yesterday, it writes of the Temple Mount as "The al-Aqsa Mosque, part
of a compound in east Jerusalem that Israeli troops captured in 1967, is th e
third-holiest shrine in the Muslim world." No mention is made of the fact that
it is the first-holiest shrine in Judaism. Another AP article yesterday,
featuring a similar sentence, quotes Egyptian President Mubarak as calling
for "the liberation of al-Aqsa Mosque," and a Jordanian official as express ing
the hope for salvaging "the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque from the hands of the
aggressors..."; no mention is made of Israel's 3,685-year-old connection wi th
the site.

9. FIVE TERRORISTS KILLED Five terrorists were killed yesterday in a
clash with an IDF force near Kalkilye. The five, coming off a failed shooti ng
attack at an Israeli vehicle near Alfei Menashe, were on their way to attac k
an IDF outpost nearby, when a waiting IDF force lying in ambush shot and
killed them.

10. SUPPLIES TO GAZA Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh visited the
Karni checkpoint today, and instructed army forces to allow food, gas, and
other materials to pass through into the Gaza Strip. He said that he would
not give anyone the pleasure of painting us as "causing the Palestinians to
starve or be =01'dried out.' When it comes to warfare, [we will fight], bu t in
other areas, we will be more ethical than [the Palestinians]," said Sneh.
Shortly after he left the Karni Checkpoint, Palestinians opened fire on two
IDF patrol jeeps on the Karni-Netzarim road.

11. IDF GENERAL: PALESTINIANS LIKELY KILLED 12-YR.-OLD BOY O.C.
Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samiyeh said today that it is very
likely that Palestinian bullets were those that killed 12-year-old Muhammed
Al-Dura almost eight weeks ago. A video clip of his killing - filmed by a
French journalist who happened to be there at the time - was broadcast all
over the world, and Israel admitted then that its shots may have inadverten tly
killed the boy. Samiyeh, however, said that an in-depth investigation,
including a re-enactment of the scene and computer simulations, show that
the boy - who, for an as-yet unexplained reason, was caught in a crossfire -
was most likely shot in the back by Palestinians. An investigation by form er
IDF sniper Yosef Doriel found that the guilty Palestinians most likely stoo d
behind the cameraman. Pictures of the incident and possible explanations
can be seen at <"http://www.geocities.com/rachav/netzarim.html">.

***The IMRA email list has lost the addresses of all its new subscribers
since June 2000. Re-join the list now by writing to
<"imra_israel@hotmail.com">.

Hebrew News Editor: Haggai Segal
English News Editor: Hillel Fendel

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975371317/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Harpazo.net news items (11/27/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 19:25:25 -0500

Italian Maverick Politician Urges Abolition of Vatican State

Maverick Italian politician Marco Pannella on Monday called for the Vatican 's
more than 70-year-old status as a separate country to be abolished as
Catholicism was the only religion to be granted a sovereign state. Pannella 's
appeal came nine days after European deputies of three Dutch parties
launched a campaign demanding that the European Union sever all
diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

The deputies argue that the Vatican wields too much political power
compared to other religions, blocking decision-making in international
organizations on issues such as AIDS prevention and women's rights. The
Vatican does not represent any people, and should not be able to force the
United Nations into policy concessions on women and youth.

The first Italian politician to come out in favor of abolishing the Roman
Catholic Church's temporal powers, Pannella said on private Radio Radical
he was backing a campaign to change this status, notably at the United
Nations. The campaign has been initiated by the See Change movement
which wants the church's current status as a Non-member State Permanent
Observer reviewed.

See Change argues that the Holy See, the government of the Roman
Catholic Church, should participate in the United Nations as the world's ot her
religions do -- as a nongovernmental organization. "Not even at Mecca, the
church is a state, even though some Islamic countries are confessional
countries," said Pannella, 70. "It is about time that we too start reforms to
immediately disband and convert the Vatican City State." AFP

Beware The Ides of Ramadan

The most important Islamic observance of the year begins today, November
27th. It is the month long observance of Ramadan, marking the year 1421 on
the Moslem calendar. The Moslems mark the month with prayer and fasting
during the daylight hours.

The Israeli security forces are bracing for a potential wave of violence gr eater
than any seen since the beginning of this new round of Intifada. Moslems
have already announced that they will not obey the recent restriction that
forbids men 45 years or younger to enter the Temple Mount for Friday prayer
and worship at the Mosque Al Aqsa. more @ hallindseyoracle.com

More Countries Should Join The Mideast Peace Process, Putin Says

President Vladimir Putin stressed Monday that Russia and Italy were both in
favor of enlarging the number of countries involved in the Middle East peac e
process. "The base of mediating countries must be expanded," ITAR-TASS
quoted Putin as saying during a Kremlin meeting with Italian counterpart
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Putin added that "international control, with the
agreement of all sides involved, must be strengthened," according to RIA-
Novosti. Ciampi for his part said the two leaders also discussed the
possibility of stationing more international observers in the region. Russi a
Today

Egyptians Turn Away Aid for Gaza

Volunteer organizations attempting to provide aid for Palestinians were thi s
morning turned away at the el-Arish border-crossing point by Egyptian
forces. The group was trying to cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. After  a
delay of several hours, Egyptian security forces instructed them to return to
Cairo. There was no explanation given for the refusal. Jerusalem Post

Annan Expected to Declare Shaba as Israeli

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to declare tonight
that the disputed Shaba area on Israel's northern border is not a part of
Lebanon, and that Hezbollah's claim that the land is Lebanese is incorrect.

Israeli sources also expect Annan to affirm that Israel has abided by UN
Security Council Resolution 425, which called for the withdrawal of Israeli
forces from Lebanon, and that a lethal Hezbollah attack yesterday, in which
an IDF soldier was killed and two were wounded, was a violation of UN
resolutions. The attack, which took place in Har Dov, is adjacent to Shaba,
which Hezbollah claim belongs to Lebanon.

Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami spoke with Annan last night and
presented to the secretary-general a detailed account of Israel's claims
regarding the situation on the northern border. Ben-Ami asked that Annan
expand UNIFIL and position those forces along the entire border, as Lebanon
has yet to fulfill its obligations under the UN resolution and position mil itary
forces in the southern part of the country. Ha'aretz

Knesset OKs Bill Against Palestinian Right of Return

The Knesset approved, on its first reading, by a 90-9 vote, a bill that rul es out
the right of Palestinian refugees to return to within the Green Line. The l aw
specifies that such refugees may be allowed within the Green Line only upon
the approval of at least 61 MKs. Meretz MKs were among those who
supported the bill. Jerusalem Post

Six in 10 Say Gore Should Concede

Six in 10 Americans, including a fourth of Al Gore supporters in a new poll ,
say it is time for the vice president to concede now that George W. Bush
(news - web sites ) has been certified as the winner of Florida's 25 electo ral
votes.

Nonetheless, about six in 10 in the ABC News-Washington Post poll also
said they would accept Gore as legitimately elected if he were to emerge as
the president. More, almost eight in 10, say they would accept Bush as
legitimately elected.

About 40 percent in the poll taken Sunday night said Gore should concede
because the vote was fair, while almost 20 percent want him to quit because
they ``want to get this over with.'' AP

PA Threaten Violence Over Ramadan Prayers

Sources in the Palestinian Authority are threatening violent opposition to
possible Israeli plans limiting numbers of Moslem prayergoers on the Temple
Mount during the month of Ramadan. The PA says clashes are likely to
break out at IDF checkpoints in and around Jerusalem if any limitations are
enacted. The Police will recommend to the political echelon in coming days
whether to allow free entry to Moslems or to continue allowing access to
prayergoers over the age of 45. Jerusalem Post

Latest Developments: (09:50 IST) Likud says it has 61+ majority for
Tuesday's first reading of its bill to dissolve the Knesset and force early
elections. Ha'aretz

Israeli Officials Okay Construction of Hundreds of New West Bank Settler
Homes

The Israel Lands Authority last month approved the construction of hundreds
of new homes in West Bank settlements, prompting fresh calls by Israeli
peace activists for a freeze on homebuilding in Jewish enclaves in the
territories, Israel Radio reported Monday. It said the Authority had given a
green light to construction of 607 new homes, and that the Housing Ministry
last week published a tender for building 76 housing units in Elkana
settlement. Meretz MK Mussi Raz urged the government to freeze
construction in all settlements. Settlement expansion has long been a focus
of Palestinian rage, and has often been cited by Washington as a main
obstacle to peace. Settlement leaders, however, said the current wave of
violence against settlers was precisely the time to boost home construction
in settlements, and to provide permanent housing for settlers now living in
caravans. Ha'aretz

US Rebukes Putin For Arms to Iran

Washington is expected to impose sanctions on Moscow this week after
President Putin=92s Government insisted that it would resume arms supplies to
Tehran. In a sudden breakdown of relations, Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreig n
Minister, flew to Vienna yesterday for what is likely to be a cool meeting with
Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.

Mr Ivanov said before he left that President Khatami of Iran was to make an
official visit to Moscow next year. The timing underlines the row between
Russia and the United States over Moscow=92s decision to resume arms
supplies to Iran. Ms Albright is expected to tell Mr Ivanov that if new arm s
exports go ahead, Washington will impose selective sanctions on Russia.

Moscow has told the US that it intends to ignore a secret 1995
memorandum agreeing not to sell arms, signed by Vice-President Al Gore
and Viktor Chernomyrdin, the former Russian Prime Minister, because the
Americans had leaked the contents to deflect attacks by Republicans on Mr
Gore. The Russians denied that they were about to supply Tehran with
nuclear materials or any components prohibited by international treaties. t he
times

Mideast Observer Idea Needs Local Backing -Germany

A Russian-backed plan to use international peacekeepers to stem the
spread of Israeli- Palestinian violence will work only if all sides agree t o such
a force, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Sunday. "It"s not
only a proposal of Russia, it"s within the discussion," Fischer told Reuter s
after meeting Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov. "All proposals should be ver y
carefully discussed. It depends on the reaction from the parties on the
ground." Reuters

U.S. and EU Blamed For Collapse of Climate Talks

Environmentalists are laying the blame for the collapse of the U.N. climate
summit with the U.S. and European Union. The summit in The Hague broke
up on Saturday in disarray after delegates failed to reach an agreement on
proposals to cut greenhouse gases and reduce global warming. Britain's
Deputy Prime Minister walked out of the meeting, declaring he was "gutted"
at the failure of the talks. Some delegates said a compromise deal on
implementing a pact reached in Kyoto in 1997 was rejected at the 11th hour
by members of the 15-nation EU. CNN

UK paper: Euroforce Chief is Son Of Nazi Officer

The German head of the proposed European Rapid Reaction Force is a son
of a Nazi officer who fought during the Second World War and later taught a t
a Hitler military academy, the Sunday Times newspaper said. Horst Bodo
Schuwirth, who died in 1983, had a model military career that began in the
Wehrmacht and ended more than three decades later after he reached the
rank of major-general in the Bundeswehr, the West German army, the
newspaper said. "The most decisive moment of his career was in the
summer of 1943 when his regiment, the 73rd Panzer Grenadiers, was
defeated by the Red Army at the battle of Kursk," the Sunday Times said.
The battle at Kursk was the biggest tank battle in history and signaled the
end of Hitler's ambitions in the east. The newspaper said the new Euroforce
commander, Gen. Rainer Schuwirth, as well as German authorities, had
refused to discuss the officer's past but Rainer's brother Werner, a lawyer ,
broke the family silence Saturday. Werner Schuwirth told news media, "Of
course my father was never a Nazi party member" but a professional soldier
called on to fulfil his duties for his country." UPI

Fears Over Genetic Information

British people are keen to see genetic breakthroughs that will benefit heal th
but do not want their employers or insurers to use the information against
them. A new survey, commissioned by the national advisory body, the
Human Genetics Commission (HGC), found that most people agree human
genetics research will lead to cures for disease and healthier babies. But it
also revealed that most people have little or no confidence that regulation s
are keeping pace with scientific developments. The survey of 788 members
of the People's Panel, set up by the Cabinet Office, coincides with the
launch of a major consultation exercise on the future use of genetic
information. BBC

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews Set to Lead Solidarity
Mission to Israel

Fellowship Founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein Announces Series of Trips to
Encourage Tourism To Israel. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Founder and
President of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a Chicago
based organization with over 200,000 members, will lead his second trip in
the past month of Christians to Israel. Last month Eckstein led a group,
which included Bishop Keith Butler of Detroit, representing over 600
Churches during which time he presented a check for $10 Million to Prime
Minister Ehud Barak's office. Israel Wire

http://www.harpazo.net/news.html

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975374146/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Let the dead speak again
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 20:18:10 -0500

November 27th
LET THE DEAD SPEAK AGAIN

British scientists believe they will soon be able to carry out the first
fully functional "voice transplant".

It may sound like something out of a horror film, with the dead being able to
speak again, but such an operation could bring relief to thousands of
speechless people.

Dead donor

A =A31.2 million programme researching the transplant of a voice box from a
dead donor to a living person is being carried out by a team from the
University of Bristol and the city's Southmead hospital.

Team leader Martin Birchall, reader in head and neck surgery at the
university, and honorary consultant at North Bristol NHS Trust, said he
hoped the first procedure could be performed in the city by 2004.

The operation would for the first time transplant personal characteristics that
identify an individual.

The vocal chords would take months to start working again - with the
recipient having a voice with the same pitch and quality as the deceased
donor.

Keep relatives away

The team would have to ensure the lives of the donor and recipient did not
overlap.

"It could cause the donor's loved one considerable distress if they heard t heir
voice coming out of someone else," said Mr Birchall.

Help cancer patients

The procedure would help thousands whose voice boxes have stopped
working as a result of cancer or injury. The research, funded by the
Wellcome Trust, will study how to perfect the transplant and how to reduce
rejection.

The only operation currently available was introduced in 1850, and involves
total larynx removal - leaving the patient to breathe through a hole in the
neck.

Nice try

The only previous laryngeal transplant was carried out in Cleveland, USA, i n
1998, but was only partially successful. The patient got some speech back,
but the voice box was not fully functional, and the patient had to breath
through an air pipe.

http://sky.com/news/health/story21.htm

via: isml@egroups.com

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975374773/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Software monitors e-mail with ease
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 13:21:32 -0000

Published Sunday, Nov. 26, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/business/docs/emailpriv26.htm

Software monitors e-mail with ease
Difficult-to-detect technology worries Net privacy advocates
BY AMY HARMON
New York Times

It was during a recent job search that Donald Bell gave in to the
temptation to bug his own e-mail. Bell, 55, had e-mailed dozens of
r=E9sum=E9s to prospective employers and received scant response.
Naturally he wondered: Was he being rejected, or had his messages
gone unread?

Anyone who has been left hanging knows it is the sort of nagging
question that is rarely answered. But thanks to a furtive application
of a feature common to the latest e-mail programs, Bell was able to
learn, undetected, that people were indeed opening his messages. With
a service he found on the Internet, he could even tell precisely when
the recipients read his e-mail and if they sent it on to anyone else.

``It feels a little naughty, because you can't do this with postal
mail,'' said Bell, who has since started his own company in San
Francisco and sometimes uses the e-mail service to check whether
colleagues forward messages that he considers confidential. ``But e-
mail is a different animal. You have to just reach into your heart
and decide what you're going to do.''

Monitoring easy

Bell is not alone in taking advantage of new e-mail software that
makes certain kinds of monitoring easy and nearly imperceptible. At a
time when many Internet users have come to grips with advertisers'
tracking their anonymous trail of clicks across the World Wide Web,
the frontier of the electronic privacy wars is shifting to the more
personal realm of the e-mail ``in'' box.

Marketing companies now regularly keep tabs on which prospective
customers open their e-mail solicitations, and at what time of day,
arguing that consumers benefit because the information is used to
devise more personalized promotions. Individuals who have used e-mail
tracking services say they feel entitled to monitor their own
correspondence in a medium where it is so easily passed along or
ignored.

But privacy advocates contend that such practices open a new window
of surveillance on a traditionally private sphere of communications.
They compare it to having someone who leaves a message on your
answering machine -- a telemarketer, say, or your mother -- alerted
the moment you listen to it. More troubling, they say, is that the
same technology can be used to attach an e-mail address to previously
anonymous records of the Web sites visited from a single computer.

Connecting the data collected through files known as cookies with an
e-mail address, the privacy advocates argue, will be irresistible to
marketers seeking to identify the buying habits and personal tastes
of individual consumers. The linked databases, they say, could also
be consulted by law enforcement agencies, insurance companies,
employers and others who would need only an e-mail address to look up
a record of an individual's activities on the Web.

``You can buy 50,000 addresses of people who subscribe to the New
Yorker,'' said Richard M. Smith, chief technology officer of the
Privacy Foundation. ``But you don't know what articles they're
reading in it, or what books they've bought or what medical problems
they've been researching lately. That's very much a possibility
within this technology.''

The technology in question is seemingly innocuous: the ability of the
latest e-mail programs to send and display images. E-mail senders use
the feature, based on the Web's computer language, to create colorful
messages known as HTML mail.

But many also use it to embed tiny images that are invisible to the
recipients. Marketers call them pixel tags and say they are used to
gauge the success of e-mail campaigns. Privacy advocates prefer a
more ominous moniker -- Web bugs.

The instant someone opens e-mail that contains instructions to
display a graphic file, his or her computer automatically fetches the
image from a specified location on the Internet. By adding a unique
identifying code to those instructions, a sender can record when a
particular recipient retrieves the image, and, thus, when the e-mail
is opened.

Subsequent retrieval of the image can tell the sender how often the
message is reopened, and sometimes whether it has been forwarded
(though not the precise forwarding address).

Direct marketers, the most frequent users of the technique, say it is
akin to the standard practice among Internet advertisers of tracking
which banners Web surfers click on.

``I don't see any privacy issues there because the data is secure and
never sold,'' said William Park, chief executive of Digital Impact,
an e-mail marketing company that has designed campaigns for dozens of
clients.

More privacy risks

The emergence of HTML mail may well make reading e-mail more like
visiting a Web site, with all the attendant privacy risks. But for
many Internet users, those risks may seem more acceptable on the Web
than they do in their ``in'' box.

Sophisticated Internet users know that when they click on a Web
advertisement they are likely exposing themselves to scrutiny, and
that it is possible to reject the files that record such behavior.

But few are aware of the tracking capability of HTML mail. And while
some e-mail programs, like Microsoft Outlook and Eudora, give users
the option of screening images out, others, like America Online 6.0
and Web-based Hotmail do not.

Some recipients of e-mail newsletters say they do not mind if the
sender knows when they open a message, particularly if the point is
to alert them to a sale or a new product they may be interested in.
But others argue that it violates their right to communicate, or not,
without being observed. And particularly in a country where postal
mailboxes are protected by federal law, the notion that reading e-
mail is no longer a private act may prove disconcerting.

``We would shudder if regular letters were implanted with secret
signals that alerted their senders when they were opened,'' said
Jeffrey Rosen, author of ``The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of
Privacy in America''. ``It seems to invade both the privacy of the
home and in some sense the privacy of the mind.''

Still, the practice is becoming more common. About 60 percent of e-
mail users have software that can read HTML mail, according to the
online research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, a number expected to grow
significantly as America Online users install version 6.0, the first
update to include the feature, released last month.

As advertising on Web sites proves increasingly ineffective, scores
of companies like Eddie Bauer and Borders are relying more heavily on
e-mail solicitations whose value lies in part in the ability to track
recipient response. How many subscribers actually open e-mail has
also become an important measurement by which e-mail newsletter
companies like Lifeminders sell advertising. Companies that send
unsolicited bulk e-mail use tracking to increase the value of their
address lists by weeding out those who never open their messages.

And individuals can use Postel Services, the Korean company whose
service Bell used to learn the fate of his job applications. Messages
routed through its servers have tiny graphic files appended before
being sent on. When the recipient opens the message, Postel is
alerted and in turn alerts the sender.

Soobok Lee, the company's founder, said about 30,000 people have used
the service since its introduction in May, in addition to several
companies that have purchased licenses to track all of their
correspondence. The first 30 messages a month are free, after which
Postel charges 2 cents a message.

Unsettling potential

But whatever the utility or etiquette involved in monitoring the
opening of a single piece of e-mail, it is the potential for that act
to open a door to far more personal information that some find most
unsettling.

The main object of concern is advertising companies like DoubleClick,
Engage and 24/7 Media that already track the Web travels of tens of
millions of Internet users, anonymously, by way of cookies.

The first time someone visits a site where DoubleClick places
advertisements, for instance, the company deposits an identifying
code -- No. 1234, say -- on his computer. After that, every time the
computer with cookie No. 1234 visits one of the several thousand
sites that contract with DoubleClick, the company records the visit.

DoubleClick and others use the information gleaned from cookies to
choose which advertisement from the hundreds of clients they
represent is most suited to an individual's tastes. They may know,
for instance, that No. 1234 has recently visited sites related to
quitting smoking, sport utility vehicles and the Green Party -- but
they have generally had no way of knowing who No. 1234 is.

The opportunity to identify the person behind the cookie comes when
one of the advertising firms sends HTML mail to a consumer on behalf
of a client, tagged with a unique identifier to track when it is
opened. When the recipient opens such a message, his cookie code is
exposed to the sender's server computer, which can compare it to
those stored in its own database. At that moment, No. 1234 could be
revealed as joe@computer.com.

After drawing scrutiny this year from the Federal Trade Commission,
the major advertisers have vowed to refrain from linking personally
identifiable information to anonymously collected data without
permission from the consumer. But privacy advocates say consumers may
consent unwittingly, and they note that voluntary privacy policies
are easily modified.

Another practice, which involves using e-mail as a kind of Trojan
horse to deliver a cookie file, recently prompted the Michigan
attorney general's office to warn that it would sue one Web site,
Evite, under the state's Consumer Protection Act unless it began to
inform consumers.

Invitation service

Party organizers use Evite, a San Francisco-based online invitation
service, to e-mail HTML invitations. In addition to collecting the
official RSVP's, Evite is able to tell the organizer who opened the
mail without responding, and who did not open it at all. Those who
open the invitation receive a cookie from Evite, which would not
otherwise be possible unless they visited its Web site.

Privacy advocates speculate that the company could ``rent'' the
cookie and the e-mail address it is associated with to other sites.

Evite's chief executive, Josh Silverman said in a statement that the
cookies Evite delivers are not linked to addresses.

But Nick Ragouzis, a technically savvy business consultant in San
Francisco who discovered Evite's invisible pixel in an invitation he
received recently, said that alone was enough to make him feel his
privacy had been invaded.

``I don't really care that they know I opened this particular
message,'' said Ragouzis. ``But they never asked me. And there would
be other messages that I would care about. I feel I should be asked.''

Ragouzis said he told the host of the party, Jad Duwaik, to refrain
from sending him future Evite invitations and asked that he stop
using the company's services altogether. But Duwaik, who organizes
networking events for entrepreneurs, said the information provided by
Evite about how many of the invitees open the e-mail helps him gauge
interest in his parties.

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975423257/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Annan appeals to governments to revamp peacekeeping
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:23:50 -0500

Annan appeals to governments to revamp peacekeeping

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
challenged governments to approve funds for an overhaul of peacekeeping
operations, saying delays would injure 58,000 troops, police and civilians
in 15 missions.

In an address to a key U.N. finance committee on Monday, Annan asked the
189-member General Assembly to approve an emergency $22 million next
year,
add 250 new staff to the department and create a new unit to gather and
analyze intelligence on impending crises.

"It is in the field that we succeed or fail," Annan said. "This is truly
an emergency requirement, demanding emergency action."

The peacekeeping department currently has some 400 professional and
clerical employees overseeing 15 operations around the world, including
Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Eritrea, East Timor and Kosovo. About 32 staff
have military expertise.

Annan also sought to meet complaints from developing countries that new
efforts for peacekeeping, particularly the intelligence unit, would come
at the expense of funds for projects in poor nations.

Saying he shared their concerns, Annan, however, told members, "It would
be folly to imagine that we can make adequate resources available for
development by preventing the United Nations from developing an adequate
capacity to pay for peacekeeping."

Annan's proposals were based on a major report he commissioned last
summer
from former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi on shortcomings in
peacekeeping following disasters during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and
the 1995 slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in the enclave of Srebrenica.

SHARPER OPERATION

Brahimi's report had been greeted by the Millennium Summit of world
leaders in September as a way to give peacekeepers, who can take months
to
reach a crisis, a sharper operation.

And the 15-member Security Council adopted a resolution on Nov. 13 lauding
the report and promising to do its part by giving clearer mandates to
peacekeeping missions.

But India, Pakistan, Egypt, Cuba, among many others, have criticized some
of the new plans and asked why the large Department of Political Affairs
could not fulfill the function of an intelligence unit.

On Monday, South Korea's U.N. ambassador, Sun Joun-Yung said
proposals for
additional posts for the peacekeeping department needed more study before
the General Assembly could approve them.

U.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke, a prime mover in revamping
peacekeeping, told the committee that "mounting demands for increasingly
complex operations in the most vulnerable parts of the globe have brought
the situation in the United Nations in this area to the brink of
collapse."

But he acknowledged a major concern was the large U.S. debt to the United
Nations, which has now amounted to $1.8 billion. About half will paid by
Congress only after the assembly agrees to lower U.S. contributions to the
U.N. budget.

In addition, the United States has insisted on a zero growth budget, which
Norway's U.N. ambassador Ole Peter Kolby said "has become increasingly
counterproductive both in terms of U.N. reform, and in terms of allowing
the U.N. to respond to new challenges and tasks."

Annan also expressed sympathy with those who deplored "the lack of
political will to contribute to peacekeeping missions in Africa" in what
he called the "commitment gap."

Developing countries who provide most of the troops for missions have
attacked wealthy nations for refusing to send their own soldiers to
peacekeeping operations.

Bangladesh, a Security Council member, tried unsuccessfully to set a five
percent quota of troop contributions for the Security Council's five
permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

23:19 11-27-00

http://www.reuters.com/news.jhtml

via: Third_Watch@egroups.com

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975422731/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] TB, malaria return as killer diseases - WHO
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:23:50 -0500

TB, malaria return as killer diseases - WHO

DHAKA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Tuberculosis and malaria, once believed under
control, are killing millions of people in Southeast Asian countries, a
World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Monday.

"TB and Malaria, which were once considered to have been brought under
control, are (now) rampant ... in developing countries and specifically in
our region," Dr Uton Muchtar Rafei, WHO regional director in Southeast
Asia, told a Dhaka health conference.

The three-day conference on tuberculosis and malaria, attended by about 50
parliamentarians from 10 Southeast Asian countries, was opened by
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"An estimated 40 percent of the population is infected with TB in our
region and more than 1.5 million people died of TB last year," Rafei said.

"The poor are more than twice as likely to get TB than non-poor. Globally,
95 percent of TB cases occur in poor countries," he said.

He said an estimated 25 million people suffered from malaria and over 1.25
billion people were at risk of contracting malaria in the region.

05:36 11-27-00

http://www.reuters.com/news.jhtml

via: Third_Watch@egroups.com

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975422731/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Daily World Affairs Report (11/27/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:23:50 -0500

AUSTRIA MUST OFFER MORE NAZI ERA COMPENSATION

The United States has warned Austria it must offer more in compensation
for Jews whose property was seized during World War II, and push the
private sector to contribute, a US official said Monday. US Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright made it clear in a meeting with Austrian leaders i n
Vienna on Sunday that she expected both the state and industry to offer
larger payments to Jews who were stripped of their assets in Nazi Austria.
"The secretary stressed the need for further commitments on the part of
Austria and on the part of the private sector," state department spokesman
Richard Boucher told AFP.

Preliminary figures mentioned by Austrian negotiators in early talks were
turned down by representatives of the victims. US Deputy Treasury
Secretary Stuart Eizenstat is due in Vienna on Thursday for a 2 day
meeting on the subject, while US lawyers back home are threatening law
suits if no satisfactory deal is struck between the parties. Renowned US
lawyer Ed Fagan wants Austria to pay some $750mn in compensation for
seized property to his clients.

"To reach a resolution, they (the Austrians) are going to need to satisfy t he
claimants by getting the support of the private sector," a senior US offici al
said. But Austrian companies have not fallen over themselves to subscribe
to the government's compensation plans to date, making only modest
payments into a fund for forced labour victims, which as a result is still
short of funds.

Vienna signed a deal with the US at the end of last month, agreeing to
compensate some 150,000 forced labour victims with a fund of $366mn,
half of which was to be raised by Austrian industry. Austrian negotiators
have not yet given a total figure for property compensation, nor have they
yet appealed to private industry for payment into a fund. The deal on force d
labour compensation was struck on the condition that Austria would move
quickly to make property payments. If it does not do so, Austria will not
have the safeguard of "legal peace", or protection from law suits claiming
more in compensation. (Agence France-Presse)

PRODI TELLS FRANCE TO YIELD VETO FIRST

Romano Prodi turned the tables on France yesterday by urging it to
surrender its national veto in sensitive policy areas to break a =93dangero us
and difficult impasse=94 before next month=92s Nice summit. Speaking at a t ime
when Paris is pressing Britain to give up its veto on tax and social securi ty
matters, the President of the European Commission said that France, as the
current holder of the EU=92s presidency, should set an example by dropping
its opposition to qualified majority voting (QMV) in areas such as external
trade.

=93No one is going to give any ground on the veto question until someone el se
does. It should be France, which holds the presidency at the moment, to set
the example,=94 Signor Prodi told Italy=92s La Stampa newspaper. The French
have listed 52 matters to which QMV might be extended at the Nice
summit, whose purpose is to reform the EU=92s decisionmaking machinery so
that it does not seize up when a dozen new member states join.

Although most member states agree that QMV should become the rule,
each is insisting on maintaining its veto on different issues they consider
sacrosanct. For France that covers external trade. =93Without letting that veto
go, Europe will never be able to sign a trade treaty,=94 Signor Prodi said.
=93Only if every country takes a step back from defending their right to ve to
will we all be able to take a step forward together.=94 He also urged Franc e
to compromise on the composition of the EC. The big member states want
its size limited, but most small states favour one commissioner per state.
(The London Times)

* Ten days before the start of a potentially landmark European Union
summit on treaty reform in Nice, hopes for a result that would exceed the
present low expectations primarily lie with the traditional motor of Europe an
integration: Germany and France. According to negotiators preparing for
the meeting -- in which a series of contentious reforms left over from the
1997 Treaty of Amsterdam are to be hammered out to pave the way for
EU enlargement -- it all depends on both nations checking their differences
at the door and working together on an ambitious new treaty. (Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung)

A TEST FOR EUROPE

The European Union can equivocate no longer. At a summit meeting early
next month in Nice, the heads of state should firmly commit to enlarge the
Union within the next 4 years by taking in qualified new members from
Central and Eastern Europe. Failure to do so would imperil the Continent's
stability by reaffirming its division into 2 halves, one united and prosper ous,
the other fragmented and still vulnerable to resentful national rivalries.

Ever since giving a prominent speech on the issue last May, Germany's
foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, has been the most forceful advocate for
the proposition that enlarging the EU is a moral and historical
imperative.Mr. Fischer recently said, "We must allow Poland into the heart
of Europe, lest we accept the legacy of Hitler and Stalin." He is right, an d
the good news is that other European governments appear resolved to press
ahead with enlargement. But their leaders should do more to sell the
economic merits of enlargement to their citizens.

Meanwhile, the Union is engaging a dozen candidates in negotiations to
pave the way for eventual membership. Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic, Slovenia and Estonia are considered the strongest candidates,
expected to join between 2003 and 2005. The promise of eventual
membership has been the greatest incentive for economic and political
reform in the entire region, from Bulgaria to the Baltics.

At Nice, the EU will have to embrace institutional reforms of its own as a
prelude to enlargement. Its decision-making processes, designed for a
trading bloc of 6 nations, are hardly suited for today's common market of 1 5
nations, let alone one of 27. The trouble is that individual member states
champion reforms that suit their often conflicting views of the Union's
fundamental nature. France and Germany, for instance, both remain strong
proponents of "deepening" the Union, although one sees it more as a
federation of nations, the other of peoples. France would like to reaffirm the
supremacy of the Council of Ministers, whose members represent the
national governments, while Germany would like to strengthen the
supranational policy-making European Commission.

To be more effective, the EU must increasingly turn to majority voting,
instead of unanimity, as a basis for action. But member states may haggle
at Nice over which issues will remain susceptible to a veto. Also on the
summit meeting agenda are the makeup of the commission, the weighting of
nations' votes in the council, a charter of fundamental rights and "enhance d
cooperation." The last item is Brussels jargon for the idea that if a subgr oup
of members wants to create, say, a shared set of financial securities
regulations, it should forge ahead on its own.

Despite its constituents' differences, the EU has a heartening track record
of coming together at such moments to keep the Continent's remarkable
integration on track. It should do so again at Nice, agreeing to reforms th at
can set the stage for an ambitious enlargement. (Int'l Herald Tribune -
Editorial)

TENSIONS HIGH IN SERBIA AS DEADLINE NEARS

Ethnic Albanian guerrillas who have been staging attacks in southern Serbia
warned Monday of an imminent offensive by Yugoslav forces after
Belgrade set a deadline for stopping the violence. Tension was high in the
Presevo valley ahead of the 7:00 pm deadline set by Belgrade for Kosovo
peacekeepers to end the rebel activity in a buffer zone near the UN-
administered province. Yugoslav tanks were seen in the area near the
demilitarized zone but President Vojislav Kostunica said the heavy
weaponry would not move into the area in line with an agreement with
NATO signed last year.

Kostunica said Belgrade would respect the agreement under which only
police with light arms, and not army troops, are allowed in the buffer zone .
"In the so-called Ground Safety Zone .. only Serbian police with light
weapons should move, and we are going to respect that provision of the
military-technical agreement." Displaced persons arriving in Kosovo Sunday
reported the "heavy presence of tanks" near their villages around
Bujanovac, Peter Deck, a field officer in Kosovo for the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees, told AFP. (Agence France-Presse)=0E

* Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says that former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's re-election to chairman of his Socialist Party of Serb ia
shows to what extent the changeover remains unfinished. It says that
Milosevic was re-elected in a secret ballot during a party congress this
weekend. The paper believes that Milosevic's party will probably still be
unable to beat the Democratic Opposition of Serbia or DOS - as the newly
ruling coalition is called - in December's parliamentary elections.

The Slovak daily Novy Cas says that some of the insults hurled by
Milosevic at the Yugoslav government and at former party colleagues
during his speech must have made his current supporters wonder whether
they could actually take him seriously. In addition, confidence in Milosevi c
must have eroded because of his supporters' "awareness that the new
Yugoslav authority has the full moral right to outlaw the entire gang... an d
that Milosevic himself is sought for war crimes", Novy Cas concludes.
(BBC)

FINDING SECURITY IN A NEW CENTURY

Speaking on day 3 of an official 4-day visit to Germany, Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov used the platform provided him by a private
conference to outline his views on European-Russian relations in the 21st
century. "Europe can and must become the generator of comprehensive
strategic stability in the world," Mr. Ivanov announced at the 6th Annual
Berlin Europa Forum, a meeting of leading politicians from almost 24
countries. Mr. Ivanov went on to link this call with an appeal to the
countries of the EU to cooperate with Moscow in matters of arms control.

Mr. Ivanov said that disarmament could no longer be a matter for
"exclusive cooperation" between the US and Russia. In the future, the EU
also needs to be involved, he said. He urged Europe to work with Russia to
preserve the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Washington wants to
modify to allow for a national missile defense system. However, Mr.
Ivanov qualified his opposition to changing the treaty by saying that his
country was entirely "open" to a unified missile defense system in Europe.

The minister also expressed strong support for strengthening both the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United
Nations. But in a reference to NATO's intervention in the Kosovo conflict,
Mr. Ivanov opposed western attempts to turn the OSCE into an "instrument
of forced democratization."

The Russian foreign minister also called for solidarity with the new
leadership in Belgrade to "secure democracy for Yugoslavia," but he made
clear that the "fate" of this democracy depended on the situation in Kosovo ,
insisting that the province must remain part of Yugoslavia. So far, he said ,
everything that had taken place in Kosovo had "actually strengthened the
position of the separatists."

Mr. Ivanov accorded relations between his country and the EU the rank of
a strategic partnership and said that his country was investigating "in
particular" the possibility of a Russian contribution to EU troop deploymen ts
within the context of crisis-management operations.

With regard to EU enlargement, Mr. Ivanov said this was as a "normal
process" not harmful to Russian interests, but Russia also needed to be
absolutely certain that the Atlantic military alliance would "not permit
violations of the basic agreement between Russia and NATO in the future."

The Europa Forum agreed with G=FCnther Verheugen, the EU commissioner
in charge of enlargement, that there was no consensus on where Europe
ended whether in terms of politics and geography. In addition to the group
of existing candidates, a second group of 5 Balkan countries was now
emerging, Mr. Verheugen said, adding that the position on Russia, Belarus,
Ukraine and Moldova remained unclear.

The latter point did not sit well with the guests from Ukraine and Moldova.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Anatoly Zlenko, warned that the regions on
the periphery of the EU could descend into chaos if outdated borders were
set in stone again. The Moldovan prime minister, Dumitru Braghis,
expressed concern that Europe could again be divided into an area of
prosperity and another of poverty and backwardness.

The Lithuanian president, Valdas Adamkus, reminded conference
participants that if Lithuania and Poland both became EU member states,
Russia's Kaliningrad region -- wedged between the 2 countries and the
Baltic Sea -- would become a Russian enclave within the EU. There would,
he said, be no alternative to greater regional cooperation with the Russia.

The leader of Germany's Christian Democrat Union, Angela Merkel,
assured the Russian foreign minister that his country, "part of which forms
part of Europe," could do away with the notion that it was not being taken
sufficiently seriously by Europeans. Mr. Ivanov ended his 4-day visit to
Berlin after meeting on Sunday with his German counterpart, Joseph
Fischer, and German defense minister, Rudolf Scharping. Mr. Ivanov then
traveled to Vienna, where the OSCE is to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

GADHAFI ADVISES U.S. POWER SHARING

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi has advised the United States to split
the presidency between Al Gore and George Bush in order to avoid "a civil
war." Gadhafi, in an interview with an Italian television station to be
broadcast in the coming days, said loosing the logjammed U.S. presidential
election was "a complicated problem." "For U.S. to avoid a civil war, power
should be split between the presidential candidates. In case Bush wins, Al
Gore could be his deputy and vice-versa. I advised the American friends to
announce this now since this would lead to solving the problem, meaning
that the one who wins more votes will be President and the one with less
votes will be deputy president."

The Libyan leader reiterated that he does not believe in elections but only  in
"direct popular democracy, meaning that people rule themselves." He
described the present democracy in the world as "fabricated democracy"
asking how "40% of the people can accept a person they did not elect?"
Gadhafi said there was "no difference between Bush and Gore," saying the
problem "lies in the Congress and the imperialist circles."

He said President Clinton was " a nice man but he could not do much for
his people because they implicated him in dangerous cases." He accused
the Congress of "ignoring the world and fighting a country without knowing
its location. I am sure the Congress does not know where Kosovo, Libya or
Kuwait are located." Gahdafi said if the Americans take his advice, both
Democrats and Republicans will be in power and both have "interests to be
in the White House." (United Press International)

GLOBAL WARNING

Paris' Liberation summarizes the result of the summit on climate change in
The Hague in a 2 word banner headline on its front page: "Bitter Failure".
The photograph that forms the backdrop to the headline is one of
environmental gloom and doom: 2 giant black chimneys spew out dark
smoke into a greenish-brown kind of smog, which diffuse sunlight is
struggling to penetrate.

Belgium's Le Soir in a front-page article entitled "Six months to rekindle
hope for the planet" strikes a slightly more optimistic note. It admits tha t the
summit was what it calls a "resounding failure". But it highlights that the  181
countries present in The Hague have given themselves 6 months to put the
negotiations back on track. "The aim is still to find an agreement on how t he
Kyoto protocol, obliging the industrialized countries to reduce their
greenhouse effect gas emissions by 5.2%, can be put into practice."

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau also says that the "climate ministers", as
it describes them, still have one chance left. "The summit has formally onl y
been interrupted, not broken off." However, it says that if the countries
attending the summit do not reach a binding agreement within half a year,
then the process under UN auspices can be "buried once and for all".

The US election saga is having truly planetary consequences,says Italy's La
Stampa in its Sunday edition. "It is certain... that the failure of the wor ld
climate conference is a serious negative consequence of the power vacuum
in the United States. Amid the total uncertainty over the successor to
President Clinton, the American delegation was deprived of any negotiating
flexibility. It was left fenced into a position unacceptable to the Europea ns
and Japanese which would have given the United States the chance of
acquiring from the poorest countries... the 'right to pollute'."

Madrid's El Pais blames disagreement between the US and Europe on how
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the summit's failure. It says that t he
USA considers unrealistic the aim of reducing emissions in fixed
instalments, saying it would also be too costly. "Given the European positi on,
which is more conservationist and moral," the paper says, stressing the
word "moral", "Washington also opposes financial sanctions against those
who fail to meet the targets." The paper says that its is poorer countries
which will most be affected by global warming, even though they contribute
the least to the emission of polluting gases. "We are all losers in the fia sco
achieved in The Hague," it says.

Vienna's Die Presse is also scathing of the outcome of the conference, yet
is far more concerned by the lack of viable solutions to the problem of
global warming. "What is really frightening is that ways out of the predict ed
climate collapse cannot be discerned anywhere." It says that the currently
most favoured solutions - the burning of biomass, solar and wind power, or
hydrogen-powered cars - all suffer from being too expensive and not widely
enough available. "For as long as alternative energy sources cannot
challenge conventional energy without millions in subsidies to back them,
environmental protection will remain nothing but hot air," it says. (BBC)

MICHAEL TURNER =0F
(mykelturner@airmail.net)

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975422732/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] U.N. human rights chief accuses Israel of using excessive force
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:31:58 -0500

U.N. human rights chief accuses Israel of using excessive force

                  November 28, 2000
                  Web posted at: 1:19 a.m. EST (0619
                  GMT)

                  CNN White House Correspondent Kelly
                  Wallace, Fionnuala Sweeney and CNN
                  Correspondent Jerrold Kessel
                  contributed to this report

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights, on Monday accused Israel of using excessive force against
Palestinians in her report assessing the latest cycle of Mideast violence.

"My overall impression remains that there is an excessive use of force; that
the response (by Israel) has been one that is beyond what is needed,"
Robinson told CNN.

"There has also been shooting on the Palestinian side, but the superior
firepower (by Israel) has been used, I believe, excessively -- particularly
against youths throwing stones," she said.

Since September 28, at least 270 people have been killed, the majority of
them Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs.

Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Robinson expressed deep
concern over the escalating violence, saying, "it is vital that both parties
renew efforts to halt the current dangerous escalation."

The report was submitted Monday to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights
and the General Assembly.

Security forces on both sides must not overreact, Robinson said. Citing
international codes pertaining to the proper use of force by authorities, the
U.N. official wrote: "Whenever force is used, the principle of proportionality
has to be applied, and all necessary measures have to be taken to avoid
loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian property."

Robinson based her report on a visit to Israel and the occupied territories, as
well as Egypt and Jordan, from November 8 to 16. The most frequent
complaint she heard, she said, is that Israeli soldiers were using
disproportionate force when reacting to a threat.

Robinson's report came as former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell said Monday
that the fact-finding committee he heads on Israeli-Palestinian violence will
travel to the Middle East "in the near future." The committee will complete a
report by March on what triggered the clashes, Mitchell said.

Monitoring body urged

Robinson, Ireland's former president, called in her report for the
establishment of an international monitoring body.

The report urged that all cases of lethal force -- employed by both sides -- be
investigated and subjected to a judicial process to avoid a climate of
impunity. Israeli authorities, her report said, also should facilitate access and
ensure the freedom of movement of international and national staff of U.N.
agencies and those in need of assistance.

Robinson, referring to Israel, said countries that are signatories of the
Geneva Convention should "assume their responsibility" regarding the
conduct of forces in occupied territories. The international agreement signed
in Geneva obligates members to observe laws of warfare and requires
standards of conduct regarding the humane treatment of civilians, prisoners
and the wounded.

Israeli officials had no immediate response to Robinson's statements or
report.

More fighting in region

Robinson's report came as Israeli-Palestinian fighting continued Monday in
the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. In addition, funerals were held for five
Palestinians who were killed Sunday night by Israeli soldiers in Qalqilya on
the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Palestinians were
shot after they fired at an Israeli civilian car and a military outpost.

The IDF official said those killed were members of Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat's Fatah military wing.

But Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudieneh rejected that account. He
told CNN he was outraged by the killings and insisted the Palestinians -- two
of whom he said were teen-agers -- were unarmed civilians. He called the
killings an unprovoked "massacre."

Two other Palestinians were injured in the clash, Rudieneh said.

Also on Monday, a funeral was held for an Israeli army officer who was killed
Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded in a disputed area on the Israeli-
Lebanese border. Hezbollah militia claimed responsibility for detonating the
bomb that killed Sgt. 1st Class Kalil Tahor and wounded two other soldiers.

Israel, meanwhile, relaxed social and economic restrictions on Palestinians
living in Gaza in respect for the beginning of the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan.

Bloodshed follows peace efforts

Just before the latest bloodshed, top Palestinian and Israeli security officials
held a flurry of meetings aimed at renewing cooperation on the ground.

"We are facing real efforts from the Americans, the Russians, the
Jordanians, to help ease things down," Rudieneh, the Palestinian
spokesman, said. "We are surprised to see this massacre take place in the
middle of the effort."

It was also disclosed that the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service,
Avraham Dichter, met in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday with the top Palestinian
security official, Mohammed Dahlan.

Last week, Israel blamed Dahlan's security unit for a rash of attacks on
Israeli settlers and troops in Gaza.

Mitchell meets with Annan

As the violence continued, Mitchell met Monday morning with U.N. Secretary-
General Kofi Annan. Mitchell told reporters he had met with representatives
from both sides in the conflict, who "assured us of their full support for the
committee."

Mitchell added, "We emphasized our strong belief that the violence between
Israelis and Palestinians must be brought to an end."

The former Senate majority leader, a Democrat from Maine, pledged to work
closely with both sides "to provide an independent assessment of the recent
events involving violence with the goal of preventing their occurrence."

Mitchell declined to give a date on which the fact-finding commission would
depart.

In October, Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak attended an
emergency summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, where they agreed to the
formation of the international fact-finding commission to investigate the
causes of, and possible solutions for, the violence. Besides Mitchell, the
committee includes former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman, former Turkish
President Suleyman Demirel, former NATO chief Javier Solana and
Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland.

Although the members were chosen by the United States and would seek
advice from many quarters, Mitchell said the committee would strive to
provide an independent assessment of the situation. "If we're to serve a
useful purpose, we must be independent," he said.

'Well-meaning people'

"It's a lot of excellent, well-meaning people who have an impossible job to
do," U.S. Institute of Peace analyst Jon Alterman told CNN. "There's no way
they can make both sides happy when they're done with their investigation
and filing their report."

But other analysts say the commission can help build confidence among
leaders in the turbulent region.

"The most important part of the commission is that you have a process that
is credible," University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami told CNN. "The
Palestinians, in particular, feel that the U.S. has jumped to the conclusion of
blaming them first, and they have wanted to investigate that."

Indeed, Arafat initially objected to Israel's insistence that the commission be
led by a U.S. representative. He said he preferred that the group be headed
by a U.N. diplomat.

Mitchell, who helped to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland, told CNN that
possible next steps in efforts to end the violence include separate meetings
with Israeli and Palestinian representatives -- talks that could occur as soon
as this week.

Barak faces crucial Tuesday vote

Meanwhile, Barak is facing his own battle -- this one in parliament. The
Knesset votes Tuesday afternoon on a bill to dissolve the body, and the
opposition has said it has enough votes to begin the process. Barak lost his
parliamentary majority in July, and polls show his popularity at an all-time
low.

There is some question as to whether Barak's shaky political coalition will
garner the 61 votes needed to defeat the bill. Some observers said they see
a peace deal with the Palestinians as Barak's only chance of surviving
politically.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/11/28/mideast.03/index.html

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975422732/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Vatican ban on exorcism at Mass
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 14:36:38 -0000

Tuesday 28 November 2000

Vatican ban on exorcism at Mass
By Bruce Johnston in Rome

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

THE Vatican has ordered a stop to exorcisms and healings during Mass
in a bid to limit the growth of "charismatic" or "neo-pentecostal"
movements.

The ban, which was signed by the Pope's chief of doctrine, Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, appeared especially aimed at the type of populist
healing sessions presided over near Rome by a controversial African
Archbishop, Emmanuele Milingo.

The document attacked "sensationalist and hysterical" movements where
crowds gathered "in expectation of a miracle". It said that while
every Catholic could pray for someone to be healed, this could only
be done in a holy place under the guidance of an ordained person.

In addition, a diocesan bishop could forbid another bishop from
carrying out an exorcism or healing in church. This point seemed to
be a specific counter to Mgr Milingo, Emeritus Archbishop of Lusaka,
whose sensational healings have caused anger in the Vatican. His post
as special delegate for the Pontifical Council for Migrants was
recently cancelled, stripping him of any importance in the Church.

Contacted in the small town of Zagarolo, south-east of Rome, after
saying several Masses dedicated to healing, the archbishop said: "I
cannot comment, because I haven't seen the ban - but I don't think it
is aimed at me."

He recently told the newspaper La Repubblica: "I celebrate Mass in
honour of Jesus Christ, as I do every day. I am a bishop, a pastor,
and I go where I am in need."

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975423256/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Barak opts for interim agreement
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:37:13 -0500

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Barak opts for interim agreement

                  By Aluf Benn and David Landau
                  Ha'aretz Correspondents

At the center of a new political initiative from Prime Minister Ehud Barak is a
proposal to achieve an interim agreement or "graded permanent settlement"
with the Palestinian Authority. The proposal will be based on "the declaration
of a Palestinian state in coordination with Israel," according to political
sources.

According to the sources, Israel will recognize the Palestinian state and will
hand over to it more territory in the West Bank as part of the third
redeployment; Israel will mark out the settlement enclaves that will come
under its sovereignty following the implementation of the permanent
arrangement; and Israel will consider the evacuation of isolated Jewish
communities in the territories in return for Palestinian agreement to
annexation of the large settlement enclaves.

"Barak hasn't given up his demand for an end to the conflict," said a senior
diplomatic source in Jerusalem yesterday, "but will agree to consider other
alternatives stemming from the fact that at this time, the Palestinian
Authority is not ready for a permanent arrangement that would bring an end
to the conflict."

The prime minister does not propose "to set aside" the problematic issues
such as Jerusalem and the refugees, the source continued, but rather to
predetermine the mechanism for discussing them.

The alternatives, which have yet to be raised with the Palestinians, are being
formulated by National Security Adviser Uzi Dayan and the director of the
Prime Minister's Bureau, Gilad Sher.

Meanwhile, Israel is holding talks with the Palestinian Authority through a
variety of channels in an effort to put together a "package" of measures that
would lead to a cease-fire and the renewal of the political negotiations. The
package will include confidence-building steps designed to ease the distress
of the Palestinian population and achieve quiet during the month of
Ramadan, which began yesterday.

Speaking last night in Tel Aviv to foreign diplomats at the Millennium Balfour
Dinner to mark the 83rd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Foreign
Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami outlined the a series of steps entitled: "Israeli
confidence-building measures: Ramadan, November 2000."

The list of steps included:

1. Civilian

l The Rafah and Allenby Bridge crossings will be opened.

l Israel will transfer 33 percent of Palestinian remittances and payments to
the PA.

l Gas and fuel supplies will continue.

l Food, medical supplies, agricultural produce and other humanitarian aid will
pass through the Karni crossing.

l Construction material will be permitted into the territories, with priority given
to material originating from Jordan.

l Permission to import 18 ambulances through the Rafah crossing.

l Holders of VIP-1 identity cards will be allowed freedom of movement, except
those connected to or identified with terrorist activities.

l Dahaniyeh airport in Gaza will open on November 29, contingent upon
security coordination.

2. Military-Operational

l Minimized engagement and friction in critical points.

l Reconvention of the Trilateral Security Committee.

l Tanks: The Israel Defense Forces will withdraw its tanks wherever possible
and scale down their presence in other areas.

3. Religious

l Temple Mount (Haram a-Sharif): Israel will allow Israeli Arabs and residents
of East Jerusalem to enter and pray at the site throughout the month of
Ramadan, with no age restriction, subject to the authorization of the security
services.

Ben-Ami dedicated a large portion of his speech to praising the Camp David
summit in July. "I have no doubt," the minister said, "that no future
negotiations will be able to ignore the achievements of Camp David ... I am
convinced that the collective memory of Camp David must serve as the basis
for any discussion on the final settlement."

The foreign minister also said that in recent days, "we have managed to
renew what appear to be promising negotiations with Chairman Arafat and
his entourage," adding that security cooperation between.

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=11/28/00&
id=102092

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975422733/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Artists Cries Censorship Over Nazi Uniforms
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:40:05 -0500

Monday November 27 7:45 AM ET
 Artists Cries Censorship Over Nazi Uniforms

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish artist accused Culture Minister Kazimierz
Ujazdowski of censorship for closing his exhibition featuring portraits of
famous actors in Nazi uniforms.

Piotr Uklanski said he was shutting down for good his exhibition ``The
Nazis,'' featuring actors such as Roger Moore and Jean-Paul Belmondo,
because of the minister's interference.

Ujazdowski ordered the closure Wednesday, saying the exhibition at the
state-owned Zacheta gallery in Warsaw's Old Town could only reopen if a
commentary was added to explain its significance.

He said a state institution must be free of suspicion of promoting Nazism.

``I am ending my exhibit....The minister's demand is nothing else but
censorship,'' said Uklanski, who had displayed his collection in several
Western cities.

The exhibition stirred a national debate in Poland after outraged actor Daniel
Olbrychski destroyed several of the portraits with a theatrical sword last
week.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001127/od/artist_dc_1.html

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975422733/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] The end of 'the end of the conflict'
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:41:55 -0500

 Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Analysis

The end of 'the end of the conflict'

                  By Aluf Benn

Prime Minister Ehud Barak unveiled a sharp turnaround in his peace policy
yesterday. Throughout his political career, Barak has advocated an end to
the method of interim agreements. His goal was a permanent settlement with
the Palestinians that would declare "an end to the conflict." Anything less,
he said, would force Israel to cede precious territorial assets without
receiving anything of value in exchange.

Yesterday, his tone changed. At a One Israel Knesset faction meeting,
Barak called for either a long-term interim agreement with the Palestinians or
a gradual permanent settlement that would leave the hard issues for the
future. The demand for "an end to the conflict," without which Barak had
previously said he would not make a deal, has been shelved.

Barak has consistently opposed the "salami tactics" of the Oslo accords. He
abstained in the vote on the interim agreement signed by prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin, and he called prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "fool" for
signing the Wye Agreement, which gave the Palestinians 13 percent of the
West Bank. As prime minister, he ignored the warnings of Shimon Peres,
Haim Ramon and Yossi Sarid, who all said the gaps were too wide for a
permanent settlement, and he should therefore set more modest goals. Even
after he returned from the Camp David summit empty-handed, he continued
to speak of a comprehensive agreement.

Barak explained his latest zigzag by saying that Yasser Arafat is "not ripe"
for a permanent settlement. This statement is an admission that his policy
has failed. Another possible explanation - denied by Barak's office - is that
the new policy is a desperate attempt to save his political skin by
encouraging Likud leader Ariel Sharon, a well-known proponent of interim
agreements, to join the government.

Two months into the Al Aqsa Intifada, Arafat has racked up two important
achievements. He has frustrated the Camp David plan, in which Barak and
U.S. President Bill Clinton tried to force him to sign a permanent agreement
with no right of return and no Palestinian sovereignty on the Temple Mount.
The interim agreement Barak is now proposing will give him his state, plus a
stronger basis for future claims on Jerusalem and the right of return. Second,
Israel has signaled that in exchange for quiet in the territories, it would
accept international observers.

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=11/28/00&
id=102093

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975423265/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] IDF allows fuel supplies into Gaza
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:48:49 -0500

 Tuesday, November 28, 2000

IDF allows fuel supplies into Gaza

                  By Mazal Mualem
                  Ha'aretz Correspondent

Senior Israel Defense Forces officers decided to lift the blockade on the
movement of fuel and gas supplies through the Karni crossing last Friday,
ten days after it was imposed. The decision to set up the blockade was
taken by officers in the Gaza Brigade following numerous shooting attacks
on Israeli gas and fuel trucks.

The trucks had become a target, and it was just a matter of time before one
of them exploded, a military source said.

By last weekend, gas for cooking purposes had almost completely run out in
homes in Gaza, while filling stations were left with very little fuel. Despite
pressure to continue with the measure from the Prime Minister's Office and
the IDF, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh decided last Thursday to
renew the supply of gas and fuel to Gaza, following discussions with the
Finance Ministry Director-General Avi Ben Bassat, military officers,
representatives of the Shin Bet security service and legal experts.

Sneh's decision was an attempt to avoid playing into the hands of
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, who would like to see Israel
portrayed on CNN as depriving Palestinian babies of warm milk, according to
an IDF officer who visited the Karni crossing yesterday.

The supply of gas and fuel was eventually renewed last Friday by Dor
Energy, the sole supplier of these products to the Gaza Strip.

The deputy general manager of Dor Energy, Muli Or, visited the fuel depot at
the Karni crossing yesterday and described the decision to suspend the
supply as "mistaken." He said that Dor had suffered financial losses and that
homes in Gaza had been left without gas for cooking. Since Friday, Or
continued, some 400 tons of gas had been pumped into Gaza, but added
that there was still a shortage of another 2,500 tons in the Strip.

The fuel and gas depot at the Karni crossing is designed to allow trucks to
pump the gas or fuel into 250 meter-long underground pipes that link Israel
and Gaza. The area around the crossing is currently being guarded by two
IDF tanks

As part of the measures to ease the flow of goods to and from Gaza, the
security establishment has also decided to permit the export of fruit,
vegetables and flowers from Gaza, and as of yesterday, permits were also
granted for iron, cement, agricultural fertilizers and raw materials for factories
in the Karni industrial zone.

Sources in the security establishment said that allowing the joint industrial
zone to perish would only cause damage and all efforts should be made to
ensure its survival.

Director of the Karni crossing Yonatan Dotan told Sneh that since the unrest
began, the average number of trucks passing through the crossing had fallen
by some 50 percent.

Yesterday, around 250 trucks went through the crossing, including six laden
with foodstuffs such as flour, sugar, coffee, rice and oil donated by Jordan
and Egypt.

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=11/28/00&
id=102097

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/_/_/975423276/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Britain 'Backing U.S. Against World Court'
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 10:12:21 -0500

Britain 'Backing U.S. Against World Court'
  NewsMax.com Wires
  November 28, 2000

Human rights activists have accused Britain of giving way to US pressure
and siding with Washington to undermine efforts to create an international
criminal court to try those charged with crimes against humanity. The claim
came as the White House prepared to tell a UN conference in New York that
the US would only sign the treaty to create the court if it was given
guarantees that no American would ever be put on trial before it.

As recently as August the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, opposed the US
position, telling Washington that its objections were "misplaced" and that the
treaty would not expose US military or civilians to vexatious prosecutions, as
the White House and Republican congressional leaders believe.

Britain denies that it has weakened its approach, but human rights activists
claim that it tried to block an effort by the EU to take a firm common stand
this week against continuing US demands for exemption.

At an intergovernmental EU meeting in Paris on October 31, the British
delegate Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who is Mr Cook's deputy legal adviser,
opposed parts of a plan for European countries to unite in opposition to
Washington's demand for Americans to be exempted.

The demand is among the key issues under discussion at the UN
preparatory commission meeting on the international court, which began
yesterday.

Campaigners say that a strong common position by EU members is crucial
to resisting US efforts to secure an exemption. "A weak position by the EU
will undermine the efforts of other countries to stand up to the US," Richard
Dicker, of Human Rights Watch, said. "Britain is playing a dangerous game
which puts the effectiveness and credibility of the court at risk."

British sources agree that Ms Wilmshurst successfully objected to part of a
"lobbying note" drafted by France for presentation to the US. But Britain
remained committed to the EU common position agreed in Paris, the
sources said.

The US is one of only seven countries - the others include China, Iran, Iraq
and Libya - which voted against the plan to set up the court, known as the
Rome treaty, in 1998.

Pentagon chiefs oppose any attempt to put US service personnel under any
form of international jurisdiction, and Republican leaders in Congress have
made it clear that any treaty that failed to exempt the US from international
jurisdiction would not stand a chance of being passed.

The court would be "dead on arrival" on Capitol Hill, the Senate foreign
relations committee chairman, Jesse Helms, said earlier this year. He has
even proposed legislation barring US officials from cooperating with the court
as long as Congress has not ratified the treaty.

It seems unlikely that the US will ratify the treaty, even with the exemption
sought by the Clinton administration, if George W Bush becomes the next
president. The secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, supports the setting up
of the court, but her prospective Bush administration successor, General
Colin Powell, is not expected to agree.

Britain and the other EU states were among the 115 countries which signed
the treaty. The court will come into existence when 60 states have ratified
the treaty. So far 22 have done so, including France.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/11/28/71354.shtml

via: Third_Watch@egroups.com

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975424883/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Father Baker miracle investigation begun
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 28 Nov 00 12:35:53 EST

Father Baker miracle investigation begun
Tuesday, 28 November 2000 1:05 (ET)
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=139496

Father Baker miracle investigation begun

LACKAWANNA, N.Y., Nov. 27 (UPI) -- A Vatican investigation has begun to
determine whether the blood of the late Rev. Nelson H. Baker, which some say
remains fresh 63 years after his burial, is a miracle.

 A tribunal named by the Buffalo Diocese at the direction of the Vatican
will collect sworn testimony from medical experts and people who handled the
blood and bodily fluids exhumed last year. At that time, Bishop Henry J.
Mansell of the Buffalo Diocese said a panel of doctors and university
experts had found the blood to be "unexplainably fresh."

 The work of the new tribunal is not made public, and no timeline is given
for the investigation, which could lead Baker one step closer to sainthood.

"When Father Baker was buried, some anticipated he may someday be
considered for canonization so the blood and bodily fluids that filled three
large jars were collected and buried in a separate concrete vault
underground," said Beth Donavan, spokeswoman for Our Lady of Victory Homes
of Charity.

 Last March, Baker's body was exhumed from Holy Cross Cemetery in
Lackawanna, N.Y., and placed at the nearby Our Lady of Victory Basilica at
the suggestion of the Vatican, "where more would be inspired to pray for
his intercession," according to Donavan.

 Donavan stressed that the Vatican requires that the church not bring
additional attention to the canonization process, but when a tent appeared
at the grave site of Baker, the reaction was a "bit overwhelming."

 "On the day of internment at the basilica 2,500 people attended," Donavan
said. "We estimate that about 10,000 people visit the Our Lady of Victory
Basilica each year, but since Baker's remains were placed in the church,
that number has doubled."

 Because of his "life in service to children and adults that society
ignored," Baker was named "Servant of God" in 1987 by Pope John Paul II --
the first step in the canonization process.

 Baker, a Buffalo, N.Y. native, served as a union soldier at Gettysburg in
the Civil War and later ran a successful feed and grain business, but was
unfulfilled, so he entered a Roman Catholic seminary.

 When he was ordained in at age 34, he was assigned to the Lackawanna
orphanage, which was heavily in debt at the time. Baker used his own
personal fortune to retire the debt, and then proceeded to expand the
orphanage and build an extensive series of services for children and adults
in Lackawanna, a city located adjacent to Buffalo.

 Baker founded a "protectory" for troubled youth, a school and a hospital.
Known as "Padre of the Poor," he served a parish with very poor immigrants
many of whom worked in the steel industry.

 He founded a home for unwed mothers after he learned that each summer when
the Buffalo River was dredged infant bones were found from babies that had
been drowned.

 By the time he was age 85, he had raised the funds and built the massive
Our Lady of Victory Basilica and National Shrine in six years.

 When he died at age 95, a half-million people attended his funeral.

 Since his death, the complex of services provided under the Our Lady of
Victory umbrella has grown. It currently serves up to 2,000 at-risk children
a day. The complex is the largest employer in Lackawanna.

____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/_/_/975437574/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bprlist-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Bible Prophecy Research
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr

======= To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Tracing the origin of the gospels
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 28 Nov 00 12:37:50 EST

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Tracing the origin of the gospels

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2000/1128/fea12.htm

CHRISTIANITY 2000: Gospel artefacts at the Chester Beatty library in Dublin
are of significance for both Christian and secular worlds argues Sean Freyne

A conference in Dublin this coming weekend is intended to heighten public
awareness of a jewel in the crown of the remarkable collection which is the
Chester Beatty gospel papyri. Or P45 to give them their official scholarly
designation.

They form a substantial part of one of the earliest known codices of the four
gospels, dating from the third century (circa AD 250) and are a direct link
with the Christian Church while it was still a persecuted sect within the
Roman empire.

They also put us in touch with the earliest period of a movement destined to
shape much of Western and global civilisation.

The papyri are then cultural artefacts of the highest significance, of
interest to the concerned secularist as well as being worthy of respect from
the committed Christian.

Like all such artefacts, the papyri call for contextualisation within their
own world if their significance for ours is to be properly assessed. Jesus and
the first Christians were heirs to the tradition of the Torah as a written
collection of Israel's sacred writings. Yet, unlike some other Jewish reform
movements, such as the Essenes whose library is now known from the Dead Sea
Scrolls, the early Christians were not a scholastic community.

Jesus's Pharisee opponents accused him of being "unschooled" (John 7, 15). His
earliest followers were described as ``ignorant" and "illiterate" (Acts of the
Apostles 4,13). But it is important to judge these statements as vilification
by the small literate elite in Jerusalem.

True, Paul used letter-writing as a way of communicating with the communities
he had established in various cities, and a collection of his letters must
have been made shortly after his death. An early version of this is also
represented in the Chester Beatty collection (P46). The case of Paul indicates
a shift in the social standing and urban context of some at least of his new
converts, as distinct from Jesus's own ministry which was largely concentrated
on the rural villagers of Galilee. Yet even Paul insists that his preference
was for the spok