Watching the World
Inquest on Kingdom Hall Bombing
After a three-day hearing last April, the Coroner’s Court of Sydney, Australia, decided that there was “insufficient evidence” to commit the chief suspect to trial for the July 21, 1985, bombing of a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses near Sydney, according to the Daily Telegraph of Sydney. The blast leveled the building, killed one man, and injured scores of others, more than a dozen seriously. (See Awake! November 22, 1985.)
At the coroner’s inquest into the death of the father of three children, police presented circumstantial evidence that linked a 39-year-old fireman with the Kingdom Hall bombing, two previous bombings of other buildings, one attempted car bombing, and three separate murders in recent years. Police stated that at the time of the Kingdom Hall bombing, the suspect was under surveillance. The coroner allowed the unusual police request to have the suspect’s name released. The coroner said he believed public interest in such shocking crimes was more important than one man’s possible embarrassment.
EXPO 86 Opens
“The largest number of international participants ever to appear at a specialized World Exposition,” is how one news release described the 1986 World Exposition, which opened on May 2 at Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada. More than 50 nations are registered, and some 14,000 live performances are part of the entertainment package. EXPO 86 will run until October 13, 1986.
“Ecological Disaster”
The introduction of Nile perch into East Africa’s Lake Victoria some 25 years ago is “an experimental project that went tragically wrong,” says The Times of London. Why? Because instead of adding to the lake’s protein resources, as originally intended, the large predator is wiping out the majority of the lake’s 300 other species—including one that helped control the deadly disease bilharzia. This unwelcome result, along with the economic hardship of buying heavier equipment to cope with this “man-size” fish that may weigh 220 pounds (100 kg) or more, has brought disaster to many fishing communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Now the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) has expressed anxiety over similar plans for Lake Malawi and other African lakes.
Doomsday Prophetess
The leader of a small African sect prophesied that the end of the world would come at midnight, March 23, 1986. Some 200 men, women, and children, members of the sect, gathered naked at her home near Dennilton, South Africa, awaiting doomsday. They had already given away their belongings, even dumping furniture, clothing, and money into the streets. Why? In order to escape the wrath of the avenging angels, she told them. But the next day she met her doom at the hands of wrathful neighbors who hacked and burned her to death. For what reason? They believed her to be a witch.
North Pole by Dogsled
Last May a team made up of five men and one woman from the United States and Canada completed the first confirmed expedition to the North Pole by dogsled without resupply. During their nearly two-month arctic trek, they endured temperatures of 70 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-57° C.), 60 mile-an-hour (97 km/hr) winds, and two severe blizzards. “There were times when I almost think that what we were doing was impossible,” Will Steger, head of the polar expedition told The New York Times. They began their quest as a team of eight with 49 dogs and five wooden sleds, each laden with half a ton of supplies. Two men and 28 exhausted dogs were evacuated by aircraft before the goal was reached. The remaining team reached the Pole with about ten pounds (5 kg) of food among them. “I was totally amazed at the power of faith and perseverence,” Steger said.
Crimes Against Children
“Every day, every year millions of young lives are shattered by criminal acts,” said United States Attorney General Edwin Meese earlier this year. An estimated 1.5 million cases of abused and neglected children were reported in 1983. From 1976-83, reported sexual abuse of children increased 900 percent. More than one million teenagers run away from home every year, often to escape abuse or other severe family problems. Every 19 seconds a teenager is victimized. Assistant Attorney General Lois Herrington said that a presidential group has been formed to clear up misconceptions about crimes against children. “For example,” she said, “most missing children have not been kidnapped by a stranger, but have instead run away or been abducted by a parent.”
Main Cause of Childhood Death
Respiratory diseases are now the number one cause of death among children under five years of age, new surveys and medical data show. Statistics reveal that respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, croup caused by measles, and whooping cough, kill an estimated 6.5 million young children each year worldwide. Diarrheal diseases, once the leading cause of childhood death, kill an estimated five million children a year.
Israel’s Nature Reserves
Although a small country, Israel has some 160 nature reserves that cover about 310 square miles (800 sq km). “This does not include the wide spaces of the Negev which in itself is like a big reserve,” adds the wildlife magazine Custos. Israel’s climate makes possible a great variety of animal and plant life. Of its 3,000 plant species, 150 grow only in Israel. Rare animals, common in Bible times, are being preserved and can be seen in their natural settings. They include wild asses, ibex, addaxes, and various kinds of oryx with their beautifully shaped horns. The Eilat Coastal Reserve hosts a magnificent coral reef with diverse aquatic life, which can be seen by means of an underwater observation room. And for bird lovers, the Hula Reserve “is a bird-watchers’ paradise,” states Custos. “A special observation tower has been built here for watching the masses of birds migrating between Europe and Africa.”
[Picture on page 30]
Ibex
Man’s Origin
A recent study of the slow changes that have taken place in human DNA (the genetic blueprint of life) suggests that everyone alive today is the descendant of a single female ancestor, as the Bible clearly shows. Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley report that “calculations that might bring the entire human family tree back to one female are based on studies of DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, from the placentas of 147 humans from the United States, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia,” says The New York Times.
Lutheran Merger Stalled
Plans to merge three United States Lutheran denominations into one by 1988 have stalled. The snag occurred when bishops of the Lutheran Church in America—the largest of the three—saw philosophical and operational problems in the proposed constitution for the new church. One proposal that made the bishops unhappy was the possibility that under the new constitution they would receive a reduced pension.
Stubborn AIDS Virus
The deadly AIDS virus is more stubborn than many people had believed. A new three-month study reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that this virus, which attacks the body’s immune system, can survive up to 15 days outside the body in a water-based environment. Dried, the AIDS virus can live up to seven days. An author of the study, Dr. Lionel Resnick, says that casual contact with the virus—such as by touching an infected toilet seat—does not appear to spread the disease. Researchers say that common disinfectants and detergents can easily kill the AIDS virus within minutes outside the body.
Major Nuclear Accident
The April 26 explosion and blaze inside a nuclear reactor at a Soviet Union power plant in the Ukraine spewed radioactive material over the surrounding area and into the atmosphere. It thereby created a blanket of radioactivity that spread to distant points of the globe. Although the exact number of Soviet victims is still uncertain, Pripyat, a nearby city of 25,000, was evacuated and became a ghost town, reported the Soviet press agency Tass. Tens of thousands from other nearby areas were also evacuated. “An explosion destroyed structural elements of the building housing the reactor and a fire broke out,” said the Soviet press release. “The firemen were fighting the blaze at a height of 30 meters [100 feet]. Their boots stuck in bitumen that melted because of high temperature.” The radioactive particles from the burning nuclear fuel attached themselves to soot and dust particles that were then lifted into the air currents and propelled around the globe.
Husband’s Supportive Role
Does the husband’s support of his wife influence how she treats her children? Yes, answer researchers from one Japanese and three American universities in the Journal of Marriage and the Family. Although there are differences between the style of Japanese and American family life, they report that in either culture “the more a mother perceives support from her husband, the more apt she is to become involved with the infant when they are together, and the less she feels that she needs to be in the presence of the infant at all times.”
World’s Oldest Man Dies
The Guinness Book of World Records had listed Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan as the world’s oldest man. At age 119, he was reported to be in “blooming health.” He died at the age of 120, during an unusually cold spell this February, after being laid up with a lingering cold for about 80 days. He had become a tourist attraction and entertained thousands of visitors each year. Until shortly before his death, he enjoyed all types of food, which he chewed 20 to 30 times before swallowing, and he also took daily walks in his garden.