Daily Headlines

Predictably, we're already beginning to see articles which are attempting to put the recent earthquakes in perspective:

The Ring Of Fire Is Roaring To Life

Does it seem to you like there has been an unusual amount of seismic activity around the world lately? Well, it isn't just your imagination. The Ring of Fire is roaring to life and that is really bad news for the west coast of the United States. Considering the fact that the entire west coast of the United States lies along the Ring of Fire, we should be very concerned that the Ring of Fire is becoming more active.

On Wednesday, the most powerful strike-slip earthquake ever recordedhappened along the Ring of Fire.

If that earthquake had happened in a major U.S. city along the west coast, the city would have been entirely destroyed.

In a previous article, I showed that earthquakes are becoming more frequent around the globe. In 2001, there were 137 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater and in 2011 there were 205. The charts and data that I presented in that previous article show a clear upward trend in large global earthquakes over the past decade, and that is why what happened this week is so alarming.

And earthquake activity along the west coast has definitely been heating up in recent days.

On Wednesday, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck approximately 160 miles off of the coast of Oregon.

Early on Thursday, there were two major earthquakes (magnitude 6.9 and magnitude 6.2) in the Gulf of California.

One of these days, one or more of the major volcanoes on the west coast is going to experience a major eruption again. There have been signs that Mt. Rainier has been becoming more active, and a major eruption of Mt. Rainier could potentially be absolutely devastating for much of the northwest United States.

Of even greater concern along the Ring of Fire is Mt. Fuji. As I wrote about the other day, Mt. Fuji has been dormant for about 300 years but is now rapidly roaring to life. New craters have appeared and these new craters are venting gas. There has been a swarm of earthquakes under Mt. Fuji this year, including a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on March 15th.

If Mt. Fuji were to experience a full-blown eruption, the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic. Mt. Fuji is not too far from Tokyo - one of the most densely populated cities on the entire planet. The loss of life resulting from a full-blown eruption of Mt. Fuji would be almost unimaginable.

But it is not just along the Ring of Fire that we are seeing a rise in volcanic activity. The truth is that we are seeing a rise involcanic activity all over the globe. The following are just a couple of recent examples which have been in the news....

*The volcanoes in Iceland that caused such huge problems a few years ago are becoming very active once again.

*Authorities in Colombia have declared a "red alert" and believe that an eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano is imminent.

*Ash is venting at the world famous Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia.

Something really strange is going on.

Threat Of Monster Tsunami Poses Ominous Possibilities

The government's revised quake-tsunami estimates have sent shock waves across Japan and forced local municipalities to reassess their worst-case scenarios.

The new estimates, based on a tremendous earthquake striking in the 750-km Nankai Trough running from Honshu to Kyushu, warn of devastation far worse than last year's megaquake and tsunami.

NATO Says Monitoring Tension In Turkey-Syria Border

NATO said on Thursday that it was concerned about an incident on the Turkish-Syrian border this week that caused casualties on the Turkish side of the frontier, after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey could seek NATO's help if similar incidents occur.

Two Turkish nationals and two Syrians were injured in a refugee camp in Kilis province when Syrian forces fired across the border during clashes with opposition fighters that reportedly had attempted to seize control of the border gate and then fled to Turkey. Erdoğan called the incident a border violation and said Turkey would pursue measures under international law in response, raising prospects of military retaliation.

UN Security Council To Vote On Syria Observers

The United Nations Security Council is to vote on a resolution to send an advance team of 10 to 12 observers to Syria within days to monitor a ceasefire that has been "relatively respected", a spokesman for UN envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday.

A larger mission of up to 250 observers would be sent later, Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular news briefing in Geneva. He declined to say which countries might supply staff to the mission, but said many of the likely countries already had staff in the region who could move quickly.

"We hope we'll have a Security Council resolution later today authorizing the advance team. The (UN) Department of peacekeeping operations is working around the clock to find the necessary number of troops for the full observer mission eventually.

Many people are familiar with the content of this next article - which is not part of the Bible's prophetic scriptures - therefore must be taken with a 'grain of salt' at best. However it is interesting to view from a healthy distance.

Will The Next Pope Be The Last?

Based on its pre-sales, “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here,” may be the surprise hit of the year.

The book has been riding high on the Amazon charts for weeks before its release this week.

It makes the case that the successor to Pope Benedict XVI will be the last Roman Catholic pontiff – leading to what has been prophesied as the “great apostasy” and even the destruction of Rome.

For more than 800 years, scholars have pointed to the dark augury regarding “the last pope.” The prophecy, taken from St. Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” is among a list of verses predicting each of the Roman Catholic popes from Pope Celestine II to the final pope, “Peter the Roman,” whose reign would end in the destruction of Rome.

According to the prophecy, the next pope is to be the final pontiff, Petrus Romanus or Peter the Roman. Some Catholics believe that the next pope on St. Malachy’s list heralds the beginning of “great apostasy” followed by “great tribulation,” setting the stage for the imminent unfolding of apocalyptic events, something many non-Catholics would agree with.