Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt. The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches. In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope. The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response. It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church. The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson. Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections […]
RAMALLAH — In the period 12-15 February, 2007, Near East Consulting (NEC) conducted a phone survey of over 1200 randomly selected Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem of which 806 were successfully completed. It is worth noting that the margin of error is +/- 3.4% with a 95% confidence level. .. 51% of Palestinians feel less secure since the January 2006 elections, as compared to 48% last month, and 44% in December 2006. .. The majority of Palestinians (85%) of the Palestinians continue to be either extremely concerned (55%) or somewhat concerned (30%) about the current situation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This constitutes a decrease of 6% since NEC’s January 2007 survey. .. 19% are concerned because of the economic hardship that their household is facing (+1% since January), 31% are concerned because of the general absence of security for their families (+5% since January), while 29% remain concerned because of the internal power struggle (-13% since January). .. Despite the recent Mecca agreement, 75% continue to feel insecure with respect to themselves, their family, and their property (+1% since NEC’sJanuary 2007 survey). .. 82% of the […]
SAN FRANCISCO — The delicate interplay between the oceans and atmosphere is changing with catastrophic consequences. Entire marine ecosystems have been wiped out, devastating populations of sea birds and larger marine mammals. These ‘dead zones’ occur where there are disturbances to the nutrient-rich ocean currents, which are driven by coastal winds. Extreme marine suffocations have occurred off the west coast of the US every year for the last five years. The most intense event, which left the ocean floor littered with the carcasses of crabs, happened in 2006. It was unlike anything that we’ve measured along the Oregon coast in the past five decades,’ said Dr Francis Chan, of Oregon State University (OSU). Other coastal countries including Chile, Namibia and South Africa have also been affected. Plant bloom The common factor between all of the areas is that marine currents off the coast rise from the deep ocean. These upwelling zones bring nutrient-rich water up from the deep, triggering plankton blooms that underpin the coastal food chain. Nearly 50% of the world’s fisheries are in these areas. The currents are driven by winds that move surface water away from the […]
SAN FRANCISCO — A bionic eye that can restore sight to the blind should be available commercially within two years, scientists behind the revolutionary technology announced yesterday. The artificial retina has been cleared by US regulators to begin trials on between 50 and 75 people suffering from two of the most common causes of blindness, opening the way for millions more to benefit from similar implants in the future. If the research progresses well, a device could be on the market early in 2009 at a likely cost of about £15,000, said Mark Humayun, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute, part of the University of Southern California. An early version of the prosthetic retina has already been fitted to six patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative and incurable eye condition that affects 1 in 3,500 people. All have recovered the ability to detect light and motion, and even to make out large letters and to distinguish between objects such as a cup, a knife and a plate. The second-generation device that is now starting trials should provide even better vision, as it contains 60 light-sensitive electrodes, compared with 16 in the previous model. […]
They may not have eye patches or peg legs, but the crews aboard the Farley Mowat and the Robert Hunter officially became a band of buccaneers when the two Sea Shepherd vessels were deregistered. Without registered flags, the ships are legally classified as pirate ships under maritime law. Over the past six months, the two ships–captained by controversial marine conservationist Paul Watson–have pursued Japanese whaling vessels in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. The six-ship Japanese fleet consists of three harpoon-equipped chaser vessels, two whale spotters and the Nisshin Maru–the world’s only factory whaling ship, referred to by Watson as a ‘floating slaughterhouse.’ In spite of a moratorium on commercial whaling enacted by the International Whaling Commission in 1986, Japan continues to hunt whales thanks to a loophole allowing research. Insisting the slaughter is necessary for their research, the Japanese began to hunt under such auspices in 1987, almost immediately following the moratorium’s institution. Due to the IWC’s ‘no waste’ rules, Japan is then ‘forced’ to process and sell the resulting whale products, generating an estimated $52 million annually in profit. Despite killing thousands of whales, Japan’s whale research is extremely poor, providing virtually no valuable information. Not […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
