News and Prophecy Staff

The Pope will turn 85 this month.  His health issues and comments he has made in the past have some expecting his resignation.  In early March, two different reports appeared in Italian newspapers (Il Foglio, March 10; and Libero, March 11), “…advancing the hypothesis that Benedict XVI might resign, in part for the sake of influencing the choice of his successor.”

On Tuesday, up to a dozen tornadoes ripped through the Dallas, Texas area, injuring 17 people, damaging 650 homes and another 300 structures, and throwing 7-ton tractor-trailers around like toys.  At the international airport, more than 100 planes were damaged, grounding 500 flights on Wednesday.  Thousands were left without power (Reuters, April 4, 2012; USA Today, April 4, 2012). 2012 has already seen about double the number of tornadoes of a typical year in this country.

The sixth annual World Water Forum meeting in Marseille, France, heard a proposal for establishing a global water fund under the control of the U.N.

The benefits of male circumcision (MC) have been contested by many including medical professionals in recent decades.  But evidence supporting the practice has grown steadily.  Last month, the most definitive study yet was published in a professional medical journal.

In the last 15 years, scientists have uncovered evidence of a “sleeping” giant subduction zone (The Cascadia) 60 miles off the West Coast.  The 800-mile-long fault runs from northern California to Vancouver and closely resembles giant faults off the coasts of Chile (9.5 quake in 1960), Sumatra (9.3 quake in 2004), Alaska (9.2 quake in 1964) and Tohoku, Japan (9.0 in 2011, causing the devastating tsunami).