News and Prophecy Staff

According to a Forbes magazine ranking, “Russian leader Vladimir Putin has trumped US President Barack Obama as the most powerful man in the world, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel retains her title as the world’s most powerful woman” (EU Observer, October 31, 2013).

In a recent address to U.K. family lawyers, the Family Division’s president commented “Happily for us, the days are past when the business of judges was the enforcement of morals or religious beliefs” (The Times, October 30, 2013).

As core nations in the EU seek to form a European military, Britain and France are formulating other plans. “Britain is forging ahead on military co-operation with France, while warning about EU ‘interference’ on defence. The two countries are the EU’s leading military powers… They are also the most hawkish.

“An Israeli parliamentary committee held a heated debate Monday on whether to begin allowing Jews to pray on what they call the Temple Mount, the compound housing [the] Al-Aqsa mosque” (Agence France-Presse, November 4, 2013). The meeting was repeatedly interrupted by Arabs and resulted in no progress.

Millions are upset over the brutal gang rape of a teenage girl in Kenya. Three of the men convicted of the crime were sentenced to mow the lawn around the police compound and then were released (Yahoo News, October 28, 2013).