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[faith]

Indonesian President Issued Decree to Stop Evangelism in Aceh

Indonesian President Issues Decree to Stop Evangelism in Aceh

Thursday, 28-July-2005, 13:56:46

Banda Aceh, Waspada -- The Indonesian president has released a decree
(Kepres) that forbids evangelism in Aceh and asked [mission organizations] to stop their evangelism activities in Aceh.

"The evangelism has been a national issue. The problem have been discussed [on the] national level and the president has issue a decree to forbid evangelism in Aceh,' " [Muslim leader] Muslim Ibrahin told "Waspada Daily"
on Wednesday.

Muslim said the government will cease [mission operations] in Aceh if they are involved in evangelism in Aceh and their workers visas will be ended and they have to leave Aceh.

Following the decree, [a Muslim group] has asked police and local government to run an investigation and find evidence on any reports on evangelism submitted by people in Aceh. The police have to become more pro-active in managing this issues," said Muslim.

Among them is World Vision. In the meeting, they promised not to run evangelism activities and will help report any evangelism cases.

Last week, hundreds of students from Syiah Kuala University marched and staged protest in front of Aceh Governor office in Banda Aceh. They asked the government to expel [missions] that provide humanitarian help to cover evangelism activities.

[TBC: The same religion which is spread by the sword can tolerate no threats to it's domination.]
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Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:17:23 -0700
From: The Berean Call
Subject: TBC Today : Bogus Beliefs

[TBC: Cults such as Mormonism have been known to have convenient revelations as the following article discusses. In Mormonism, this was referred to as the Word of Wisdom. Consider these excerpts from a Mormon website discussing how revelation developed.]

Early pioneers eased into Word of Wisdom

It is commonly believed that the Word of Wisdom was not an injunction until made so by Brigham Young in 1851 at the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ten years later however, Brigham Young himself publicly alluded to the fact that he had only recently overcome habits contrary to the Word of Wisdom.

In 1861 Brigham Young sent a group of pioneers from Switzerland. These pioneers probably never saw a cotton plant (the main reason pioneers came to Southern Utah, however they could grow grapes and make wine.) Tobacco was another crop grown down here. On page 94 of "When I Was Called To Dixie," it says, "Brigham Young's injunction to produce his own tobacco if he had been a slave to the weed."

The Word of Wisdom as it is known today, came to be in increments. An example is found in the "History of Saltair," by John McCormick. In 1899, there was a fervent discussion between the member of the Quorum of Twelve on the interrelation of the Word of Wisdom.

Some strongly opposed the eating of animal meat. This was strongly supported earlier by Brigham Young's humane treatment of animals. Other members wanted the use of German Black Beer exempted. This lively discussion came about in the fact that the Mormon Church owned and ran a bar at the Saltair resort on the Great Salt Lake.

After the vote between the Quorum members, the Mormon Church sold the Saltair bar and the use of eating meat was lessened.

In "Great Basin Kingdom," by Arrington, a church historian, "Brigham Young estimated that in 1864 the territory spent (in hard to acquire gold and
silver) nearly 100,000 on tobacco and thousands more on tea, coffee and liquor. Although the leaders had been preaching against the use of these Word of Wisdom prohibitions for several years, it was more a saving of money than violating a commandment. We can produce them or do without them, Brigham Young said.

In fact, in 1861, the prophet told Orson Hyde that Southern Utah could cheerfully contribute their efforts to supply the territory with, among other products, tobacco. He wanted Utah's Dixie to produce the territorial supply of tobacco so as to eliminate to paying to outsiders from $60,000-$80,000 annually for that one article.

It took much longer than most Latter-day Saints like to believe. Although the Word of Wisdom was received by the Prophet Joseph as early as 1833, the Lord apparently understood the difficulty of giving up such habits as tobacco and strong drinks and thus did not make it a commandment. Early Church leaders apparently believed the habits were more deeply entrenched than even the Lord suspected and made only periodic attempts to enforce the Word of Wisdom (thespectrum.com, 7/18/05).
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All TBC articles are printed w/prior permission for Millenium Weekend Ministries website.

[faith]

Archaeologists identify traces of "miracle" pool - Siloam Pool & more...

Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 07:32:32 -0700
From: The Berean Call
Subject: TBC Today : Whadaya Expect From A Miraculous Book?

Archaeologists identify traces of "miracle" pool
Water flows through the site where archaeologists believe they have uncovered the remains of the Siloam Pool in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem on=A0Thursday. The pool was=A0used by Jews for ritual immersions from about 50 B.C. to A.D. 70, when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple.

JERUSALEM - Archaeologists in Jerusalem have identified the remains of the Siloam Pool, where the Bible says Jesus miraculously cured a man's blindness, researchers said Thursday -- underlining a stirring link between the works of Jesus and ancient Jewish rituals.

The archaeologists are slowly digging out the pool, where water still runs, tucked away in what is now the Arab neighborhood of Silwan. It was used by Jews for ritual immersions for about 120 years until the year 70, when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple.

Many of Jesus' acts are directly linked to Jewish rituals, and the miracle of the blind man is an example. According to the Bible, the man was undergoing ritual immersion in the Siloam Pool for entry into the Temple compound, and Jesus used the occasion to cure his blindness (Kevin Frayer, Associated Press, Dec. 23, 2004).
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All TBC articles are printed w/prior permission for Millenium Weekend Ministries website.

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Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:23:08 -0700
From: The Berean Call
Subject: TBC Today : Whadaya Expect From A Miraculous Book?

Now the Stones Will Speak [Excerpts] - Archeology finds!

For those who hate Israel, one of the most dangerous things a Jew can do in Jerusalem is to start digging. Because the more you dig there, the worse it gets for those who would like to pretend that Israelis are alien colonists imposing their rule on the so-called indigenous people of the region.

You might think arguments claiming that the Jews were alien to the place ar= e limited to the nonsensical propaganda that emanates from the less enlightened portions of the Islamic world. Claims from the Muslim Wakf that administers the Temple Mount in Jerusalem that the place has been a mosque since the days of Adam and Eve are, we hope, laughed off by those who read the mainstream press.

But though few in this country outside of academia have noticed, the notion of Israel being the historical homeland of the Jewish people has been under attack from far more reputable sources. In recent decades, a new front in the war on Israel was opened in intellectual journals and classrooms. Its goal? To trash the notion that the Bible's accounts of the history of ancient Israel have the slightest value, and to debunk the idea that the United Kingdom of David ever existed.

As professor Jonathan Rosenbaum, president of Gratz College here in Philadelphia and himself a leading authority on Ancient Near East studies,
said: "If you can upend the idea that King David was a historic figure and that ancient Israel was real, then you can delegitimize modern Israel."

And in the spirit of the post-Zionist fashion that has swept over Israel in the last decade, these ideas have been embraced by a number of influential Israeli archaeologists, too. Most prominently, Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University has written that the idea of the Davidic kingdom is not based on fact, and that David's Jerusalem was nothing but a "poor village."

But last week, the debunkers of Jewish history got some bad news. And all it took was for a dedicated archaeologist to start digging.

Dr. Eilat Mazar, senior fellow of the Jerusalem-based Shalem Center's Institute for the Archaeology of the Jewish People, made public the results of the dig she had been conducting since February in an area south of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, where scholars believe the city of David existed. What she produced ought to help quiet those who think Jewish history is bunk.

Amid the soil and rocks of the place that is now the village of Silwan, Mazar uncovered the ruins of the building she's sure was the palace of David itself -- the very same structure that was built, according to the Bible, by King Hiram of Tyre for Israel's greatest king, around 1,000 BCE.

Directly underneath the structure that was uncovered were "masses of pottery" all dating to the 11th and 12th centuries BCE, the era that archaeologists call Iron Age I, which predates the era of David. By its position in the site, this pottery, which was a unique find in of itself, makes it clear that "Iron I was over or almost over by the time the buildin= g was started," said Mazar.

"Once I started to excavate," says Mazar, "it was as if I had written nothing. Now, the stones will speak, not me."

And speak they do.

For those who contend that what she found was more likely the Jebusite fort David conquered or something else that predates his kingdom, Mazar said tha= t the placement of the Iron I pottery right underneath it makes such a conclusion "problematic."

"How come I didn't find any remains of any construction underneath it? It doesn't make any sense. If this is the fortress, it was erected a day before King David captured the city.

A NAME IS A NAME
Just as telling was an artifact only 1 centimeter long, uncovered from a slightly later period. It was an impression of an ancient seal, or "bullah,"
which bore the name of Jerucal, son of Shelemiah, son of Shevi.

Who was he? Nothing less than a minister of the Kingdom of Judah in its last days before the Babylonian destruction of the city in 586 BCE. We know of him only because he is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. But the bullah proves his existence isn't a literary flight of fancy.

"Layer by layer, we must take the Bible much, much more seriously than was ever thought, and treat it as a most important historic document that contains a lot of realistic descriptions," declares Mazar (Tobin, Jewish World Review, August 11, 2005). \/

[faith]

Heretics Say Unbiblical Things - The Message book

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005
From: The Berean Call
Subject: TBC Today : Heretics Say Unbiblical Things

(Author of THE MESSAGE book)
The importance of poetry and novels is that the Christian life involves the
use of the imagination, after all, we are dealing with the invisible. And,
imagination is our training in dealing with the invisible, making
connections . . . .

I don't want to do away with or denigrate theology or exegesis, but our
primary allies in this business are the artists . . . . Why do people spend
so much time studying the Bible? How much do you need to know? We invest all
this time in understanding the text which has a separate life of it's own
and we think we're being more pious and spiritual when we're doing it . . .
. [Christians] should be studying it less, not more. You just need enough to
pay attention to God . . . . I'm just not at all pleased with all the
emphasis on Bible study as if it's some kind of special thing that
Christians do, and the more they do the better." ["A Conversation with
Eugene Peterson," "Mars Hill Review," Fall 1995, Issue No. 3: pgs 73-90.]

[TBC: It is shocking, but not surprising, that Peterson esteems Bible study
so little. While claiming to be a Greek and Hebrew scholar on one hand,
Peterson regularly abandons definitions from Strong's (and other trusted
sources) for his own poetic "translation" into today's "lingo." That such
carelessness is applauded by leading evangelicals is astounding. Peterson is
much more careful with his interviews today -- but these earlier comments
reveal his rationale for taking such "creative liberty" with Scripture in
his corrupted "paraphrase" of God's Word called "The Message." Peterson
says, "imagination is our training in dealing with the invisible." What an
astounding contradiction of God's Word! (which says): "Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15); "All scripture [is] given by
inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).]

*All TBC articles are printed w/prior permission for Millenium Weekend Ministries website.

[faith]

Re: Religious News

Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:21:24 -0700
From: The Berean Call
Subject: TBC Today : TBC Reprints

From the November 1994 TBC Newsletter
"The Gospel According to Talk"
T.A. McMahon

Paul knew something about the seductive and destructive effects of listening
to other voices rather than listening to God. His prophecies concerning the
matter reveal a heart grieving over the destruction to come upon those who
were his spiritual children.
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils..." (1 Tm 4:1). "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of 3 years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears" (Acts 20:29-31).
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Quotable

God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice,
and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice
between good and evil.

When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign
will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not
which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make
it....Man's will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than
sovereign...would be afraid to...bestow moral freedom upon His creatures.

God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal
purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began ... with
infinite wisdom and perfect precision of action. No one can...turn Him aside
from His plans. Since He is omniscient [and] sovereign...there can be...no
accidents...no breakdown in authority; and as He is omnipotent, there can be
no want of power to achieve His chosen ends . . . .

Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will the deadly
conflict of good and evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have
His way [but] as responsible beings, we must make our choice in the present
moral situation.

A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
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Question: In both your books and the newsletter you have spoken against
Christians practicing yoga. The 5/19/05 Christianity Today online has an
article in which the author testifies that yoga has never had any negative
effect on her because she considers it merely to be stretching exercises and
her focus is on the Lord, not on some Hindu deity. She notes that Paul says
that a believer may have perfect liberty to eat meat sacrificed to idols.
Why wouldn't this passage apply to yoga as well? Aren't you keeping many
from a helpful and healthy exercise by warning against yoga?

Answer: We could give far more testimonies of those who have been demonized
or driven to suicide or suicidal thoughts through yoga. Tragically,
increasing numbers of evangelical churches are sponsoring classes in yoga.
Having dealt with this in the past (see TBC Aug '98), and because we have a
book on this subject coming out in a few months, I won't go into details. In
simple terms, if one desires to be physically fit, one should adopt
exercises specifically designed to fulfill that end. If one desires to
realize one's innate godhood (self-realization) and achieve union with
Brahman (the universal soul), then practice yoga, which is specifically
designed to accomplish that end. Of course, there is no such realization,
but Satan and his demons are capable of leading the gullible into this
delusional state.
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The Sentinel, 08/04/2005: Vacation Bible schools are usually pretty staid
affairs, but St. John's Episcopal Church in Carlisle [PA] is tapping into
popular culture this year by inviting "Harry Potter" to help teach lessons
behind the scriptures.
"The way I look at it, you have to reach...people where they are," says
the Rev. Robyn Szoke, associate rector at St. John's. "[Harry Potter] gives
us a real avenue to journey alongside them and helps them reflect on God."
The program -- called "Wizards and Wonders"...focuses "on the heroes in our
lives and on making good choices and Harry will be using a Bible as his
guide .... Really, the links to scripture are amazingly easy to make in
Harry Potter's world," she says.

But the children attending "Wizards and Wonders" will probably be most
excited by the chance to meet both Harry Potter and his sidekick, Hermione.
They'll even get a chance to play a good game of quidditch, though the
flying broomsticks used by players in the books might be hard to find.

"We're also going to use this series as a way for the children to explore
some of the Celtic roots of their own church tradition when we let them walk
the Labyrinth - a traditional form of meditation and prayer," she adds.
"Wizards and Wonders" has proven popular so far.

2 Timothy 4:
3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

2 Corinthians 4 Treasures in Jars of Clay
1Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.
**On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

1 Timothy 6:
9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

Corinthians 1:17-19 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Romans 12 Living Sacrifices
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–His good, pleasing and perfect will.
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*All TBC articles are printed w/prior permission for Millenium Weekend Ministries website.

[faith]

'Circus of Intellectuals', 'God in the Storm', & 'The Genetic Revolution' articles

The Circus of the Intellectuals

God in the Storm--Part One

God in the Storm--Part Two

The Genetic Revolution ? Where Will It Lead?

by Albert Mohler
Author, Speaker, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

[faith]

'Living Fossils: Problem for Evolution', & 'Goal of Global Governance'

Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 00:29:01 -0700
From: K-House eNews
Subject: K-House eNews for September 13, 2005

Living Fossils: A Problem for Evolution

The Goal of Global Governance

**MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK**

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV

[faith]

The Delusion Of 2005

From: Olive Tree Ministries

THE DELUSION OF 2005
9/14/05
What malady infects the U.S. State Department? What turns reasonable, intelligent people into political machines that work against America's interests? How can an incredible woman, Condoleeza Rice, make some of the following statements and not believe that thinking people know she is stretching credulity with them?

RICE: "We welcome the completion of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. This is an historic moment for both sides, and the commitment of both sides to be a successful disengagement process has been impressive."

REALITY CHECK: Secretary Rice, just name ONE fulfilled commitment on the part of the Palestinians or their leadership other than that terror will continue? This week the Palestinians burned down every synagogue in Gaza. They rampaged through Gaza shooting guns and destroying any remnant of anything Jewish. The Israelis even exhumed all bodies out of graves as they knew they would have been dug up and destroyed lest there be a shred of Jewishness in Gaza. The Gaza-based terrorists are claiming victory through violence. PA leader Abbas continues to tell children to be martyrs. This is a peace partner? Secretary Rice, appeasement won! The PA violates every treaty they sign yet are rewarded and commended by people like you.

Additionally, the PA destroyed over 3,000 greenhouses purchased by American Jews to employ Gaza Palestinians, and Israel left millions of dollars of infrastructure in Gaza to get their economy growing.

Rice did not even mention the mayhem, looting, shooting, and torching when she made her statements. Instead the State Department chastised Israel for not destroying the synagogues when they departed. Put the shoe on the other foot. Can you imagine the outcry if Israel touched an Islamic shrine? They even protect them, starting with the Temple Mount. Rice also said more evacuations are now needed and Israel must release more prisoners (terrorists).

RICE: "Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's courageous decision (to leave Gaza) will enhance Israel's security and allow the Palestinians to make progress towards building the necessary institutions for a future state."

REALITY CHECK: How does the evacuation of Gaza enhance Israel's security? What has moved into Gazastan now are many of the world's terror groups including al-Qaida. They will upset the entire region even more. Secretary Rice, if you REALLY believe what you said, I can sell you a vacation to sun yourself on the beaches of Minnesota in January. This all has to be the delusion of 2005. How does this promote the president's vision of spreading democracy in the Middle East? It is only spreading terror in the Middle East. The perfect base for it has been established.

RICE: "We congratulate the Israelis and Palestinians on their effective co-odination in recent months and particularly during the actual implementation of disengagement. We hope to see this cooperation continue."

REALITY CHECK: There is no cooperation, Secretary Rice. None on the part of the PA. The PA is shouting "onward to Jerusalem!" This is a peace partner? Their charter calls for the extermination of Israel. You've appeased terror. The jihadist terror paid off and you thank them for their cooperation. You are a brilliant woman, but why can't you see the obvious?

RICE: "This will advance the president's vision of two states living side by side in peace and security."

REALITY CHECK: The cry of Jeremiah 6 here: "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Only the deluded would believe that these two sides are going to live side by side in peace. One (the PA) wants the extermination of the other (Israel). Visit a PA classroom. All maps show all of Israel as "Palestine." As Benjamin Netanyahu says, "Israel gave and gave and gave some more. What did we get in return? Nothing, nothing, and nothing."

President Bush has said that his goals will not be accomplished if there is not a Palestinian state by 2007 and Abbas says it must be 2006. But the baby state already shows signs of being a deformed monster built on radical Islam and controlled by thugs and terrorists. An outfit that U.S. taxpayers have already spent $50 million on and has promised another $550 million.

State Department, please wake up and smell the bagels. There is blood on your hands and you are endangering America which seems to be your tradition. I do not wish to speak with disrespect towards America's leaders so let us double our prayer effort for them.

The unreported story of the last two weeks which was posted on my "Current Headlines" September 14 (and remains about a week) at www.olivetreeviews.org is that the U.S. actually turned down some Israeli Katrina aid fearing it would anger the Muslim world. Where is the outrage for any of the above? I fear the outrage will come from God.

RADIO: Check out the radio show for September 10 with Avi Lipkin (Victor Mordecai), the world's leading authority on Islamic terror posted to "Radio Archives." You can also hear the September 3 program on Katrina from a biblical perspective. Dial-up listeners can now access these programs with few problems due to new technology. THIS WEEKEND: Roger Oakland on church deception issues, Hal Lindsey, and Jack Kinsella unless hurricane Ophelia overwhelms his area which is a likely scenario. If we're not in your neighborhood, you can listen live Saturdays 9 - 11 AM CST and Sundays, 12 - 2 PM CST at www.kkms.com. Just click on "Listen Live" and if you have a problem, hold down the Ctrl key as you click "Listen Live." Check the Web site for other cities and options. We hope to expand to more cities as funds become available and will add AM630 KJSL in St. Louis October 3, every Monday at 1 PM.

Awaiting His return,
Jan Markell

You may pass on these items or have people sign up on the "Home" page of our Web site, www.olivetreeviews.org. We update "Current Headlines" twice a day and you can access our radio programming from the last two years on "Radio Archives." Also see the Web site for other options to catch the program, "Understanding the Times," live and tape-delayed. Report e-mail address changes reporting old and new.
Please remember us prayerfully and financially.
Gifts are tax-deductible with receipts in January.
Olive Tree Ministries
Box 1452
Maple Grove, MN 55311.

[Guest]

Bird Flu

Canada to host bird flu conference
OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) -- Canada will host a major international conference on avian flu in October to discuss how ready the world is to combat a likely pandemic, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said Thursday.
The head of the U.N. World Health Organization said Thursday that avian flu will mutate and become transmissible by humans. The flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia and spread to Russia and Europe.

U.S. Buys $100 Million of Bird Flu Vaccine
WASHINGTON - Mass production of a new vaccine that promises to protect against bird flu is poised to begin, as the government on Thursday agreed to stockpile $100 million worth of inoculations. The new contract with French vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur marks a major scale-up in U.S. preparation for the possibility that the worrisome virus could spark an influenza pandemic.

Avian Flu: Is the Government Ready for an Epidemic?
Sept. 15, 2005 — It could kill a billion people worldwide, make ghost towns out of parts of major cities, and there is not enough medicine to fight it. It is called the avian flu. This week, the U.S. government agreed to stockpile $100 million worth of a still-experimental vaccine, while at the United Nations Summit in New York, both the head of the U.N. World Health Organization and President Bush warned of the virus' deadly potential.

[Guest]

Bird flu closes Indonesian zoo

Bird flu closes Indonesian zoo

By Rachel Harvey
BBC News, Jakarta

A zoo in the Indonesian capital Jakarta has been temporarily closed after some exotic birds were found to have contracted avian flu.
The zoo remained open at the weekend but closed on Monday for three weeks.

The latest wave of bird flu has already killed four people in Indonesia, and dozens throughout South East Asia.

The WHO has warned that the virus is continuing to develop, and the possibility of human-to-human transmission remains a real threat.

Officials say 19 birds at the zoo, including peacocks, mynahs, pigmy chickens and eagles, have been infected with avian flu.

Tests will now be carried out on other animals as well as on all 500 employees.


H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS

Principally an avian disease, first seen in humans in Hong Kong, 1997
Almost all human cases thought to be contracted from birds
Isolated cases of human-to-human transmission in Hong Kong and Vietnam, but none confirmed.

The infected birds will be destroyed unless they are protected species, in which case officials say they will be treated with medicine.

The news will add to the growing sense of anxiety in Indonesia about the way the disease is spreading.

Earlier this month a 37-year-old woman became the fourth person in Indonesia to die after contracting the H5N1 strain of the virus.

At least two children, one of them a relative of the woman, are currently being treated in hospital for symptoms consistent with bird flu.

Samples of their blood have been sent to a specialist laboratory in Hong Kong for further investigation.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ic/4259512.stm

[Guest]

Officials warn of catastrophic flu pandemic

Officials warn of catastrophic flu pandemic

Estimates of 'tens of millions' dead if virus mutates as feared

Posted: September 20, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

A recently evolved avian flu virus could mutate and become transmissible between humans, touching off a massive global pandemic, agreed public health officials from more than 20 countries in the Western Pacific region who gathered yesterday.
With one small genetic adjustment in Influenza A, or H5N1, millions of people could die, warned World Health Organization Regional Director for the Western Pacific Shigeru Omi.
Omi, speaking at the regional WHO meeting in Noumea, New Caledonia, in the South Pacific, called for health ministers and representatives to launch an all-out war on the deadly strain, which has killed at least 57 people.
"While we still have a window of opportunity, we must do everything we can to avert an influenza pandemic as we simultaneously prepare for a worse-case scenario," Omi said in his address.
If the virus acquires sufficient human genes, allowing transmission from one person to another, an estimated 2 million to 7.4 million people around the world could die, the WHO estimates.
Others put the figure in the tens of millions.
In Jakarta yesterday, authorities closed down the popular Ragunan Zoo and had workers tested after rare eagles, peacocks and other birds were infected by the virus.
Three children suspected of contracting the disease were being treated at the Indonesian capital's infectious diseases hospital. Two of the children are in serious condition.
Nine days ago, a 37-year-old woman became the fourth fatality in Indonesia, where the virus has become endemic in chicken flocks across island nation.
According to the WHO, the Ministry of Health in Vietnam confirmed an additional fatal case of H5N1 infection that dates back to July, a 35-year-old male farmer from Ben Tre Province.
Since mid-December, 21 have died in Vietnam in 64 cases.
Worst case
The worst-case scenario, the New York Times reported, would be if person-to-person transmission spawned successive generations of severe disease with high mortality – the situation during the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, which killed an estimated 40 to 50 million people.
The early 20th century disaster resulted from the emergence of a completely new influenza virus subtype that spread worldwide in four to six months, causing several waves of infection over two years.
The H5N1 virus, which spreads through migratory birds, has plagued poultry populations in Asia since 2003, exposing more humans.
More than 140 million birds have died, and half of the 112 people infected have succumbed to the virus.
Russia is the most recent of 10 countries where the virus has turned up, and it now is threatening Europe, according to WHO officials.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the world's defenses against flu are improving but remain inadequate, the Financial Times reports.
There is no pre-existing human immunity to the H5N1 virus.
"We've never seen so much influenza in so many birds in such close proximity to humans in so many places," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding. "If ever there was a time when the risk [of a pandemic] was higher than usual it is now."
At the United Nations last week, President Bush proposed an "international partnership" to combat the disease, requiring members facing an outbreak to share information immediately.
Already Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Nigeria and Canada have indicated interest in the partnership.
"We cannot afford to face the pandemic unprepared," WHO Director Lee Jong Wook said Thursday at the United Nations.
To shore up its drug stockpile, the U.S. has awarded more than $100 million to two European pharmaceuticals, France's Sanofi pasteur of Sanofi-Aventis and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline.
"These countermeasures provide us with tools that we have never had prior to previous influenza pandemics," said Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, last week.
But WHO officials acknowledge that because the new virus has not changed in a way that would enable human-to-human transmission, they don't know precisely how they would combat it.
"We know we're overdue for an influenza pandemic strain, and we know it will occur, but we don't know when or even exactly what virus will cause it," **** Thompson, a WHO spokesman, told the New York Times. "It is possible that the virus won't be H5N1 at all or that this virus will change in a way so that the vaccine under development doesn't work against it."
Gerberding, according to the Financial Times, agreed the laws of probability suggest a pandemic is due, noting the world has gone an unusual number of years since the last one in 1968, when the Hong Kong flu killed an estimated 1 million people.
The CDC director said the pharmaceuticals industry had the capacity to produce about 900 million doses of human vaccine against bird flu within several months.
But she pointed out this would meet only a fraction of the need in the event of a pandemic.
Word of caution
Some observers are urging caution amid growing discussion of "doomsday scenarios."
Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, writing in the Modesto Bee, acknowledged the virus is a serious disease for bird species capable of causing illness and death in humans.
But he noted the virus has not been detected in North America despite its presence in Asia since 1996.
While some scientists suggest migratory birds will carry the virus overseas, the Asian flocks that travel to the western fringes of the Alaskan coast have shown no indication of the virus in the 12,000 samples taken by University of Alaska researchers from 1998-2004. These birds do not fly into the lower 48 states, Mattos pointed out.
For a pandemic to emerge, a human must simultaneously be infected with human influenza and avian influenza, Mattos argued.
"Subsequently, the two viruses must then meet in the same cell and genetically reassemble to create a unique 'avian-human' influenza virus," a mutation that has occurred only three times in recorded history.
He also points out that the confined, environmentally controlled housing of U.S. poultry flocks prevents contact between infected wild waterfowl and commercial poultry – a barrier rarely employed in Asia.

[Guest]

Re: Bird Flu

World has slim chance to stop flu pandemic
By Michael Perry
Sep 20 1:48 AM US/Eastern

NOUMEA, New Caledonia (Reuters) - The initial outbreak of what could explode into a bird flu pandemic may affect only a few people, but the world will have just weeks to contain the deadly virus before it spreads and kills millions.

Chances of containment are limited because the potentially catastrophic infection may not be detected until it has already spread to several countries, like the SARS virus in 2003. Avian flu vaccines developed in advance will have little impact on the pandemic virus.

It will take scientists four to six months to develop a vaccine that protects against the pandemic virus, by which time thousands could have died. There is little likelihood a vaccine will even reach the country where the pandemic starts.

That is the scenario outlined on Tuesday by Dr Hitoshi O****ani, the man who was on the frontline in the battle against SARS and now leads the fight against avian flu in Asia.

"SARS in retrospect was an easy virus to contain," said O****ani, the World Health Organization's Asian communicable diseases expert.

"The pandemic virus is much more difficult, maybe impossible, to contain once it starts," he told Reuters at a WHO conference in Noumea, capital of the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia. "The geographic spread is historically unprecedented."

O****ani said nobody knew when a pandemic would occur, it could be within weeks or years, but all the conditions were in place, save one -- a virus that transmitted from human to human.

The contagious H5N1 virus, which has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since it was first detected in 2003, might not be the one to trigger the pandemic, he said. Instead a genetically different strain could develop that passes between humans.

While bird flu cases continued to spread throughout Asia, with Indonesia this week placed on alert after reporting four deaths, O****ani said the winter months of December, January and February would see an acceleration in cases, and the more human cases the greater risk that the virus would mutate.

Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia were most vulnerable due to the large domestic poultry populations, he said.

MASSIVE, RAPID CAMPAIGN

When a pandemic is first detected, health authorities will need to carry out a massive anti-viral inoculation campaign within two to three weeks to have any chance of containment, said O****ani.

"Theoretically it is possible to contain the virus if we have early signs of a pandemic detected at the source," he said.

Scientists estimate that between 300,000 and one million people will immediately need anti-virals, but there are only limited stocks. WHO will receive one million doses by the end of 2005 and a further two million by mid-2006.

Even when an avian flu vaccine is fully developed, production limitations will mean there will not be enough vaccine.

"Right now we have a timeframe of four to six months to develop and produce a certain quantity of vaccine and that may not be fast enough," said O****ani.

Last week French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis won a $100 million contract to supply the United States a vaccine against H5N1. The United States has also awarded a $2.8 million contract to Britain's GlaxoSmithKline for 84,300 courses of an antiviral. The purchases are part of a U.S. plan to buy vaccine for 20 million people and antivirals for another 20 million.

O****ani said the early vaccines were unlikely to protect against the pandemic virus. "The vaccine should match the pandemic strain. So a vaccine developed for the virus in Vietnam now may not protect you from another virus," he said.

But O****ani fears that once a pandemic occurs, the world's rich nations may dominate vaccine supply.

"The distribution of a vaccine will be a major issue when a pandemic starts. There is no mechanism for distribution," he said. Asked whether poorer Asian nations such as Cambodia and Vietnam would get a vaccine, O****ani said "probably not."

Avian flu has moved west from Asia and into Russia, with many fearing migratory wild birds will spread the virus to Europe and possibly the United States via Alaska.

But O****ani casts doubt on the impact migratory birds are having on the spread of avian flu, saying different sub-types of the H5N1 virus are in Asia and Russia.

"There are so many uncertainties about the pandemic. We don't know how it will start. We don't know exactly how it is spreading," he said.

O****ani said that the successful containment measures used against SARS, such as quarantining those infected and cross-border checks, would fail against an avian pandemic, as people spreading bird flu may not show early symptoms.

"The pandemic is likely to be like the seasonal influenza, which is much more infectious than the SARS virus," he said.

(c) Reuters 2005. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

[Guest]

Re: Bird Flu

Indonesia says bird flu outbreak an epidemic
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia called an outbreak of bird flu in its teeming capital an epidemic on Wednesday as health and agricultural experts from around the world converged on Jakarta to help control the virus.Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the emergence of sporadic human cases of bird flu in recent months in and around different parts of Jakarta, home to 12 million people, warranted the epidemic tag.

[faith]

Re: Religious News

Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:08:00 -0700
From: The Berean Call
Subject: TBC Today : Israel and Islam

Jakarta (AsiaNews, 9/7/05) -- 3 women charged with violating Indonesia's
2002 Child Protection Act by trying to convert Muslim children were found guilty on all charges in an Indonesian court and sentenced to 3 years in jail. The verdict against Rebecca Loanita, Etty Pangesti, and Ratna Mala Bangun was pronounced on September 1 after 4 months of trial during which Muslim extremists tried to intimidate and influence the judges.

The charges against the 3 women were brought by the so-called Indonesian Council of Mullahs which claimed they tried to convert Muslim children at a Happy Weekend event.

The 3 women had organized a week-end of songs, games and outings for Christian children alone, an element that their attorneys had stressed but that the court in Indramavu (West Java) chose to disregard it on the grounds that non-Christian children were present.

Muslim extremists were present at the trial hearings where they tried to intimidate the judges. The women's attorneys said that the decision was influenced by the constant threats and not any legal merit the case might have had. No Muslim child was converted and none was forced to attend.

What is more, the extremists released a statement to the press calling on the court to impose the death penalty on the women. Eyewitnesses present at the sentence hearing said that the same extremists arrived carrying a casket shouting that they would bury the three women if they were not found guilty.

After the decision was read and sentence passed, the crowd in the courthouse broke out in shouts of "Allahu akbar" (God is greater).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*All TBC articles are printed w/prior permission for Millenium Weekend Ministries website.

[Guest]

Re: Bird Flu

Planning urged for bird-flu pandemic


By David R. Sandsand Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published September 22, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International epidemiologists and officials of a growing number of countries are concerned that bird flu could mutate into a virulent form of human flu that could kill millions across the globe. They urge a united international front to defend against it.
"It's coming," says Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), who urges intensified planning now. "When the pandemic starts, it will simply be too late."
The latest avian-flu strain, blamed by WHO for 63 deaths in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, has spread to poultry in Russia and Kazakhstan and will almost certainly show up in Western Europe as well, international health specialists predict. Tens of millions of birds, mostly chickens and ducks, have been slaughtered in Asia to prevent spread of the animal strain.
WHO researchers say between 7 million and 100 million humans worldwide could die in such an outbreak. Dr. Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, predicts it could kill at least 1.7 million Americans. Worldwide, he foresees at least 180 million deaths and possibly 300 million.
But the operative word is "could." The disease must first mutate into a strain to affect humans; flu virus mutates with ease, and it could mutate into a killer strain -- or into a relatively harmless strain. Some analysts describe Dr. Osterholm's forecasts as far-fetched, given that only 675,000 Americans died in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, when medicine was relatively primitive and between 20 million and 50 million people died worldwide. About 40,000 Americans, mostly the elderly, die of flu in an average year.
"This could be a false alarm," one researcher says. "But false or not, alarm is certainly appropriate."
President Bush announced a new "international partnership" to prepare for an epidemic, if not a pandemic, in his Sept. 14 address to the United Nations. "If left unchallenged," he said, "[avian flu] could become the first pandemic of the 21st century. We must not allow this to happen."
The president raised his concerns in a private meeting in New York with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Chinese public health officials were sharply criticized for their slow and secretive response in the early days of the SARS outbreak in 2002. The U.S. will host a meeting in Washington of partnership members within the month to prepare for a human bird-flu pandemic. Canada will host a similar meeting of senior health ministers from 30 nations by the end of November.
The alliance is meant to improve information-sharing; coordinate donor funding; and build up public infrastructure in targeted countries, many of which are too poor to finance their own major containment programs. Indonesia, for example, has been reluctant to kill flocks of suspect birds because it does not have the money to compensate farmers.
Nearly all of the humans who have died of avian-flu infection in Asia had direct contact with infected birds. An epidemic or pandemic could occur if the virus mutates into a strain that would spread by casual human-to-human contact.
The Indonesian government, accused of responding slowly to the threat, yesterday fired its chief of animal-health control for failing to check the disease among domestic fowl. The government assigned 44 state-owned hospitals the task of treating human avian-flu patients, and said it might order anyone with flu symptoms -- coughing, high fever and difficulty breathing -- to hospitals.
That action came as Indonesian officials worried they were possibly confronting a rapid human outbreak in that country, since as many as six persons may have died of the infection since July. Two young girls, ages 5 and 2, who had avian-flu symptoms, died yesterday. Nine other patients suspected of having the bird-flu virus were being treated at a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Infection is "just a plane ride away," says Dr. Lee of the World Health Organization. "In this interconnected world, no part of the world is safe."

Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Guest]

Re: Bird Flu

Bird flu vaccine block fear

By Clara Pirani and Sian Powell
23sep05

AN Asian bird flu pandemic may be difficult to prevent after many Chinese have been found to be resistant to common drugs used to treat the disease.

New research found more than 70 per cent of people suffering the flu in China and Hong Kong had developed a resistance to the drugs widely used to treat bird flu, leaving 1.2 billion Chinese susceptible to the disease.

The viruses' resistance had been built up after Chinese farmers used the cheap-antiviral drugs in an attempt to keep their poultry disease-free, the research showed.

"Viruses collected in 2004 from South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China showed drug-resistance frequencies of 15 per cent, 23 per cent, 70 per cent and 74 per cent respectively," researchers from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Lead author of the CDC report, Rick Bright, said the report "has broad implications for agencies and governments planning to stockpile these drugs for epidemic and pandemic strains of influenza. We were alarmed to find such a dramatic increase in drug resistance."

The stark warnings came as Australian travellers were being warned to avoid countries where the threat of bird flu loomed.

The affected countries are: Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Burma, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Laos.

The Indonesian Government yesterday warned of a possible bird flu epidemic after two girls aged two and five died, and 10 patients with bird flu-like symptoms were treated in hospitals.

Four Indonesians have died since July from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003.

But while the Australian Government was stockpiling the antiviral medicine known as Tamiflu, and issuing protective face masks to Australian officials and their families in 16 eastern and southeast Asian nations, others were playing down the threat.

Australia's chief medical officer, Professor John Horvath, who chairs the national pandemic council on avian influenza, said an outbreak in Indonesia would not signal the start of an influenza pandemic.

"Of greatest importance is the question of whether these recent events in Indonesia signal the start of an influenza pandemic," Professor Horvath said in a statement.

Alan Hampson, deputy director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Influenza in Melbourne, said cheap antivirals used to stop bird flu in poultry were not used in Australia, but were readily available in Asia.


Airport flu screening 'worthless'
Screening passengers for flu or Sars when they arrive at UK airports would pick up only a relatively small number of cases, experts say. The measure is being proposed as part of government plans in the event of a flu or Sars epidemic.


Vietnamese bird flu survivor relives disease 'hell'
Nguyen Thanh Hung, 42, is one of just a few people in the world who came down with bird flu, stared death in the face, yet lived to tell the tale.