Watching the World

▪ “There are so many scientific proofs in favour of evolution which appears to be a reality we can see and which enriches our knowledge of life.”​—POPE BENEDICT XVI.

▪ “Officials scrambled . . . to find the money to inspect and repair about 74,000 ‘structurally deficient’ bridges in the U.S., after a 40-year-old highway bridge in Minneapolis [Minnesota] full of rush-hour traffic abruptly plunged 60 feet into the Mississippi River, killing [13 people].”​—THE WEEK, U.S.A.

A Majority Break the Law

“The presumed ‘law-abiding majority’ is nothing but a cosy myth,” says London’s Times newspaper. “Most Britons admit that they obey only the laws they want, when they want.” Research for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, reveals that the majority of offenders come from the “respectable” core of society. One third of those questioned pay cash to avoid taxation, one third keep the money if given too much change, and one fifth admit stealing at work. Researchers conclude that this behavior is “indicative of the moral state of society​—perhaps much more so than violent and street crime.”

Nuclear Weapons “in God’s Hands”?

The Russian Orthodox Church has given its blessing to the work done by the men and women responsible for storing and maintaining Russia’s nuclear arsenal. In a message read during a ceremony in Christ the Savior Cathedral, Moscow, and reported by the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, the Russian Orthodox patriarch, Alexis II, said: “I offer prayers to God . . . that the nuclear weapons created by you and entrusted to you will always remain in God’s hands and will only be weapons of deterrence and retaliation.”

Honey in Ancient Israel

“Archaeological proof of the Biblical description of Israel . . . as ‘the land of milk and honey’ (or at least the latter) has been uncovered,” says the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology. The find, at Tel Rehov in Israel’s Beth Shean Valley, consists of three rows of cylindrical clay beehives stacked at least three tiers high. The colony dates “from the 10th to early 9th centuries B.C.E.” and “would have contained some 100 beehives,” says the report. Beekeepers estimate that the site may have produced “as much as half a ton of honey” each year.

Pets Come First

According to an Internet survey, “one in four Australians say their pet is the most valuable member of the family, even more important than their partner or parents,” reports The Sydney Morning Herald online. One in three respondents to a survey conducted by an Australian financial services company spent “more time and money on their pet than on their own medical needs.” Pet treatment options include magnetic resonance imaging, keyhole surgery, bone grafts, chemotherapy, organ transplants, hip replacement, and even brain surgery.