WHO declares Ebola epidemic an international health emergency.
(Reuters) – West Africa’s Ebola epidemic is an “extraordinary event” and now constitutes an international health risk, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday. The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said the possible consequences of a further international spread of the outbreak, which has killed almost 1,000 people in four West African countries, were “particularly serious” in view of the virulence of the virus. … “The outbreak is moving faster than we can control it,” the WHO’s director-general Margaret Chan told reporters on a telephone briefing from the WHO’s Geneva headquarters. … Ebola has no proven cures and there is no vaccine to prevent infection, so treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea – all of which can contribute to severe dehydration. (Read more).
Shares, dollar sink as U.S. authorises air strikes in Iraq
(Reuters) – World shares and the dollar tumbled on Friday and oil and gold jumped after U.S. President Barack Obama authorised targeted air strikes in Iraq, stoking fears of another drawn-out conflict in the region. Fighting also resumed in Gaza between Palestinian militants and Israel while NATO’s calls for Russia to “step back from the brink” of war in Ukraine were still ringing in ears of volatile markets. (Read more).
Israel strikes Gaza after militants resume rocket fire
(Reuters) – Israel launched air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday in response to Palestinian rockets fired after Egyptian-mediated talks failed to extend a 72-hour truce in the month-long war. (Read more)
Islamic State surges in North Iraq, near Kurdistan border
(Reuters) – Islamist militants surged across northern Iraq toward the capital of the Kurdish region on Thursday, sending tens of thousands of Christians fleeing for their lives, in an offensive that prompted talk of Western military action. Reuters photographs showed what appeared to be Islamic State fighters controlling a checkpoint at the border area of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region, little over 30 minutes’ drive from Arbil, a city of 1.5 million that is headquarters of the Kurdish regional government and many businesses. (Read more)
Eyewitness describes plight of Iraq’s trapped Yazidis
We’re hiding inside caves. We have nothing – no food and no water. We’ve been under siege for four days. We eat once a day – either in the morning or at night. We’ve managed to get some basic food supplies from neighbouring areas, but three children died today because of starvation. Seven women and children have died since yesterday because of dehydration. (Read more).
Russia hits West with food import ban in sanctions row
Russia is imposing a “full embargo” on food imports from the EU, US and some other Western countries, in response to sanctions over Ukraine. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said it would include fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports. Australia, Canada and Norway are also affected. Elsewhere, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Ukraine’s freedom and future were “under attack,” promising support against Russian “aggression”. (Read more)
Revelation 6:4-8 (NASB) And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. 5 And when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” 7 And when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” 8 And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
In the book of Ezekiel, the Lord gives Ezekiel a message for the Jewish exiles in Babylon: Jerusalem will fall to the Babylonians and there will be a complete destruction. In 18 verses this phrase appears: “Then you will know that I am the Lord” (See for example, Ezekiel 7:4 NASB). Such will be the case in the end-time. The Lord gives us prophecies so that when they begin to occur they cause us to look to Him. May the world begin to turn to God.
Jesus come quickly.
Blessings.
Jack
