California gay marriage ban liftedComment

CALIFORNIA, USA - A US appeals court has lifted a ban on same-sex marriages in California, following a Supreme Court ruling. The order was issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Washington 'bugged key EU offices' - German magazineComment

GERMANY - Germany's Der Spiegel magazine says it has seen a secret document showing the US has bugged EU offices in Washington and at UN headquarters in New York.

Central banks sell record sums of US debtComment

USA - Central banks sold a record amount of US Treasury debt last week while bond funds suffered the biggest ever investor withdrawals as markets shuddered at the prospect of the US Federal Reserve ending its quantitative easing programme.

Western US states baked by blistering heat wave

USA - Western US states are baking in an extended heat wave, with temperatures threatening to break the all-time high recorded on Earth. In Phoenix, Arizona, the mercury hit 47C (116F) on Friday, and in the desert of Death Valley, California, the thermometer approached 51C.

Bergoglio, the "Black Pope" Dressed in White?

VATICAN - He governs the Church like a superior general of the Jesuits. He listens, but decides on his own. Even a McKinsey man has been called in to study the reform of the curia, which Francis wants to purify from corruption and from the "gay lobby".

Vatican official arrested in corruption plot

VATICAN - A Vatican official has been arrested by Italian police for allegedly trying to illegally bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland with a private jet.

The looming threat of a race war against South Africa's whites

SOUTH AFRICA - Last month alone there were 25 murders of white landowners, and more than 100 attacks, while Afrikaner protest groups claim that more than 4,000 have been killed since Mandela came to power — twice as many as the number of policemen who have died.

Tempers fray in France as drastic cuts loom

FRANCE - France's budget watchdog has called for another round of drastic cuts and an immediate freeze in public sector pay and benefits, warning that public finances are badly off track as deep recession eats into tax revenues.

Egypt 'could slide into civil war'

EGYPT - Egypt's leading religious authority has warned of "civil war" calling for calm after a member of the Muslim Brotherhood was killed ahead of mass rallies against the rule of President Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt, Its Streets a Tinderbox, Braces for a Spark

CAIRO, EGYPT - Thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, many wearing hard hats and armed with makeshift clubs, are camped near the presidential palace in anticipation of a battle to defend their ally, President Mohamed Morsi.

Families face 'unprecedented' squeeze on living standards

UK - The rise in the cost of living and the squeeze on household budgets is much worse than the official measures suggest. The cost of essential goods and services has rocketed by 25 percent in the past five years, according to a new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

Government overrules the dictionaryComment

UK - The word “husband” will in future be applied to women and the word “wife” will refer to men, the Government has decided. Civil servants have overruled the Oxford English Dictionary and hundreds years of common usage effectively abolishing the traditional meaning of the words for spouses.

US to lose access to key military base after Russian ally cancels lease

USA - The United States will lose access to a vital military logistics hub in Central Asia in 2014 following the Kyrgyz president's decision Wednesday to cancel a lease agreement for a military base. Officially dubbed "Transit Centre," the Manas air base has served as a supply hub for US troops in Afghanistan since 2001. That agreement expires in 2014 anyway, but the renunciation law prevents it from being renewed. Experts have linked the cancellation with pressure from Russia, which also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan.

 
US spooks stockpile arms for Syrian rebels in Jordan

USA/MIDDLE EAST - The CIA is stockpiling arms in Jordan for US-trained Syrian rebels, which they will use in an offensive against Damascus starting August, according to The Wall Street Journal. Up to hundreds of fighters are to be armed and sent to the battlefield monthly. The intelligence agency had stored Soviet-made arms at a network of secret warehouses in advance of the Obama administration’s decision to provide military assistance to the militants fighting against the government of Bashar Assad, the newspaper reports. The weapons include anti-tank missiles, which may be handed over to the Syrian rebels.

 
Inside the Ring: China breaks sanctions

CHINA - The UN committee in charge of monitoring arms sanctions on North Korea concludes in a report that China provided six off-road vehicles that were converted into long-range missile launchers by Pyongyang's military.

“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Just what is an Apostle?

Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”

The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!

Read online or contact email to request a copy

Listen to Me, You who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Law: …I have put My words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, “you are My people” (Isaiah 51:7,16)