• 7/2/98 Yeltsin gets aid from foes in fight to save economy.
• 7/6/98 Traces of chemical found in whales. Traces of two kinds of industrial chemicals, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, used as flame retardants, appear in sperm whales, indicating the substances have penetrated deep in the Atlantic Ocean. If this continues an environmental problem may be on its way.
• 7/30/98 Keizo Obuchi declared Japan’s new prime minister.
• 8/4/98 Falling yen threatens China. Yen-led decline in region’s currencies could crush China’s Asia-heavy exports. U.S. Official says reform in Japan is crucial to prevent spread of Asia’s financial crisis.
• 8/10/98 Internet takes Pope to cyberspace Catholics. Vatican City – Pope John Paul will take his message to millions of cyberspace Catholics around the globe. The world’s one billion Roman Catholics will be able to hear and see the Pontiff recite his angelus prayer on Sundays, conduct his general audience on Wednesdays and follow other ceremonies in the Vatican as well as the Pope’s travels abroad. "This is a further sign of the Holy See’s efforts to boost its presence in the world of modern social communication to favour the spread and knowledge of the Papal Magisterium and strengthen the bonds of ecclesiastical communion," the Vatican said in a statement. The new service will take off on August 15, which Catholics celebrate as the Feast of the Assumption.
• 8/16/98 Iraq president Saddam Hussein says U.S. will reap nothing. Baghdad, Iraq – The United States will reap nothing but thorns in its campaign against Iraq, and would be misled to think they could bring Iraq to its knees.
• 8/18/98 Too many boats taking too many fish. World fishing fleet capacity is five times greater than previously estimated, and 2 ½ times greater than is need to catch fish at a sustainable rate. Nearly 70 percent of the world’s 200 most valuable fish stocks - including the Atlantic halibut and bluefin tuna - are either depleted or overfished. Evidence shows that loss of fish species is setting off a chain reaction that will ultimately limit possibilities for recovery. Every year, 29 million tons of fish, seabird, sea turtles and marine mammals are killed and discarded into the sea as incidental or unwanted bycatch. One of every four fish is wasted. The world has already lost nearly one-tenth of its original coral reefs due to rising ocean temperatures, dynamite fishing, coral bleaching and souvenir hunting. One-third of those remaining are at risk of destruction with the next two decades. Every year, more than 700 million gallons of toxic chemicals are dumped into the ocean and 70 to 80 percent of it originated on land. Since 1988, there have been more than 22,000 beach closings and advisories because of pollution, more than 4,000 last year alone.
• 8/18/98 Despite IMF $22.6 billion bailout, Russia devalues ruble by one-third. The unanimous view of G-7 officials was that the critical element to stabilize Russia was reform inside the country.
• 8/21/98 U.S. strikes terrorists. A dozen cruise missiles were fired at targets in Sudan and Afghanistan as an act of self-defense against terrorist.
• 8/27/98 Russian banking system nears collapse; ruble falls again. Moscow – The ruble plunged almost 40 percent against the German mark after the central bank voided trading against the dollar on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. Foreign investors are withdrawing from Russia in droves. This crisis jolted world markets, as increased risk of global recession looms. The financial aid has stopped until free market reforms are activated. Yeltsin defiant as crisis deepens.
• 8/29/98 U.N. ponders halt to sanction reviews until Iraq complies.
• 9/11/98 Yeltsin picks Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister. Naming diplomat eases political crisis; economic one awaits. IMF puts freeze on bailout money. On 9/18/98 Primakov closed off media access to his cabinet, which reminded some of the Soviet days.
• 9/18/98 Uranium plant’s owners must pay $36.5 million. The owners of a uranium plant that fueled submarines during the Cold War were ordered by a jury to pay at least $36.5 million to eight cancer-stricken residents of the small town of Apollo, Pa. Nearly 100 residents of the river town of 1900 people some 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh have claimed that three decades of radiation from the plant have caused an unusually high incidence of cancer.
• 9/23/98 Pentagon approves sale of aircraft to Israel. The sale of $5 billion worth of warplanes (F16C/Ds and F15Is)was approved to Israel.
• 9/23/98 U.S. and Russia sign two nuclear agreements.
• 9/23/98 Sexual defects in fish linked to pollution. British study blames the hormonal havoc of alligators, birds, river otters, carp on sewage treatment plants, who routinely release hormonelike compounds into rivers. These chemicals are mimicking estrogen or blocking testosterone, disrupting the endocrine system that is critical to sexual development. This phenomenon was first discovered in the 1970s, but was dismissed as a fluke. In a surprising scientific discovery that suggests pollution is feminizing wild animals, everyday concentrations of sewage effluent in rivers appear to contain estrogenlike chemicals potent enough to cause fish to be born half-male, half-female. The finding by British scientists provides strong evidence that hormone-altering pollution could be a global ecological threat. Animals have been found with bizarre sexual defects living in highly polluted waters, and this problem is more widespread than previously detected. The scientists do not know which chemicals are to blame, since sewage is a mix of wastes from homes and industries.
• 9/27/98 Relations thaw between developed, non-developed countries. Top environmental officials from 22 nations narrowed differences over steps to implement the international treaty to combat global warming, by reducing the so-called greenhouse gas emissions. Under an agreement reached last year by 160 nations in Kyoto, Japan, major industrial countries are required by the years 2008 to 2012 to cut gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels. Scientists claim that rising concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere are warming the surface temperature of the Earth and disrupting weather patterns. They predict that if current pollution trends continue, there will be more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, storms and floods, and sea levels will rise.
• 9/28/98 Challenger ousts Germany’s Kohl. Berlin – Social Democratic challenger Gerhard Schroeder ousted Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Europe’s longest-serving statesman and brought the left back to power in Germany for the first time in 16 years. Unemployment of 11 percent of the work force and a desire for change was reflected by the voters.
• 10/4/98 Russian economy still needs help. Moscow – Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov will continue to privatize state property and appealed for more long term foreign investment to help Russia get out of its economic mess.
• 10/4/98 World may find more peace through United Nations. Move to resolve conflict in world’s 30 hot spots. Peace, peace, peace, peace.
• 10/4/98 After two decades, a lulled pope presses on. Vatican City – Pope John Paul II marks the 20th anniversary of his papacy.
• 10/5/98 Ice-Core Clues Suggest Sudden Climate Change. The Earth’s climate abruptly warmed by 20 degrees Fahrenheit or more to end an ice age 12,500 years ago, according to James White, a climatologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, whose findings may force a re-evaluation of the history of dramatic swings in the planet’s climate. New ice cores from Antarctica show that the south pole area went through a rapid temperature increase at the same time that the north polar region also was warming by almost 59 degrees within a 50-year period. These findings throw a monkey wrench into paleo-climate research, as to how the Earth’s climate slipped from an ice age that ended about 12,500 years ago, and shifted into the current temperature climate. He stated, "Such rapid shifts in the climate on a global basis would make it very difficult for humans to adjust." Climate affects agriculture, energy use, transportation and population shifts.
• 10/10/98 Global recession could be in offing. Washington – Facing the most serious challenge to the world economy in 50 years, finance ministers and central bank presidents from the United States and six other wealthy nations are exploring ways to avert a slide into a global recession.
• 10/16/98 Clinton to leaders: ‘break the logjam.’ Four-day Middle East summit opens.
• 10/16/98 Pope defends church’s fundamental beliefs. Bishops urged to shun modern theology. Vatican City – Pope John Paul II rallied his church against assaults on its fundamental beliefs, saying such attacks have sowed confusion and despair among Roman Catholics. Speaking out in the 13th encyclical of his papacy, an important pope document this one 154 pages, he warned bishops against temptations posed by some modern schools of thought. It grapples with the issue of religion in the modern world, when expectations have been raised by scientific and technological progress, faith and reason are not compatible. He cited agnosticism and relativism as among the doctrines that tend to devalue even the truths which had been judged certain.
• 10/23/98 Mideast peace accord taking shape. Arafat agrees to revision of PLO charter.
• 10/25/98 EU leaders chart new course. Poertschach, Austria – European Union's mostly socialist leaders began mapping out a new left-leaning path for the 15-nation bloc. The EU’s 11 left or center-left leaders were quick to emphasize the union’s change of direction at a summit in this lakeside Austrian resort. Rudlof Scharping, Germany’s defense minister-designate states that socialists throughout Europe were "taking a new responsibility." "We are starting a new era within the European Union," he said. Leaders said the time had come to look beyond the Jan. 1 launch of the euro, the EU’s common currency. Emphasis should now be placed on sustaining Europe’s growth through the current world economic crisis and getting jobs for the EU’s 18 million unemployed workers," which is promoted by Germany’s Chancellor-elect Gerhard Schroeder, in his EU summit debut. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he may call a meeting of the leaders of the world’s seven most industrialized nations. To defend against the economic crises in Asia and Russia, Italy’s new Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, a former communist, said the leaders agreed there should be a cut in interest rates. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin revived a plan for the EU to raise loans to finance public works projects such as transcontinental road and rail links, which Kohl shot down. Blair reversed his Conservative predecessors by calling for the EU to develop its own defense capabilities to tackle regional conflicts without having to rely on U.S. support. He outlined plans for European military within NATO for peacekeeping or combat missions.
• 11/7/98 Iraq criticizes U.S. threat of action. Baghdad, Iraq – Iraqi newspaper accused the Clinton administration of knowing "nothing but the language of threats," and pledged the country would defend itself against attack.
• 11/7/98 Researchers report breakthrough. Process has potential for dramatic impact on many diseases. A crucial step toward creating new heart, liver and other tissue for transplantation, researchers (University of Wisconsin, Madison) have discovered how to grow human embryonic master cells in the laboratory, financed by the Geron Corp. They have cultured human stem cells, the foundation source of cells that during gestation form all body parts. The cells transform into muscle, bone or nerve. What causes cell to become muscle or nerve is still unknown.
• 11/12/98 Israeli Cabinet Oks peace deal. Narrow approval followed addition of conditions.
• 11/19/98 U.S. population projected to reach 394 million by 2050.
• 11/23/98 Global warming gas found in Pacific. Scientists from the University of Hawaii have found large amounts of a gas (nitrous oxide) linked to global warming in the Pacific Ocean's shallow waters, suggesting that increased El Nino activity could stoke even greater production of the gas.
• 11/27/98 Lessons of the dinosaurs. The most recent find was a piece of rock no bigger than the head of a match. The geophysicist who found it claims it to be a fragment of an asteroid that slammed into the Earth 65 million years ago. I hope these guys never find that kidney stone that I flushed down the toilet last year. May it rest in peace.
• 11/29/98 Pentagon: China building anti-satellite laser. A post cold-war Pentagon study warns that China with the help of former Soviet scientists must be building satellite superiority in order to get one up on the old United States. Of course they will be building an anti-satellite laser which burns chemicals and uses mirrors to focus a one million-watt energy stream into a 6-foot-wide beam, in order to cripple America's fleet of "spies in the sky."
• 12/7/98 Astronauts unite space modules. Endeavour's astronauts connected the first two building blocks of the international space station, creating a seven-story tower in the shuttle cargo bay. It was the first time that the Russian-built Zarya control module and the made-in-America Unity chamber had touched, 240 miles above the earth. This is the foundation of a planned $63 billion space station.
• 12/13/98 European Union fails to ease expansion dispute. Vienna, Austria - European Union leaders failed to narrow the rift between rich and poorer members over how to pay for plan to almost double its membership by expanding eastward. Germany and other rich member states want to limit the amount they have to pay to help bring the newcomers' post-Communist economies up to Western standards.
• 12/13/98 Yeltsin urges no constitutional changes. Moscow - President Boris Yeltsin defended Russia's 5-year-old constitution as a barrier to those who want to return the country to its Communist past.
• 12/13/98 Clinton begins diplomacy in Mideast.
• 12/13/98 African witnesses surge in Christianity. Harare, Zimbabwe -- The most significant challenges within Christianity these days according to the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches is rapid growth in Africa. Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and others have claimed significant growth in Africa. The World Lutheran Federation says membership in Lutheran churches in Africa grew by two-thirds in seven years, to 9.1 million in 1997. During the last two decades, the Vatican says, the number of Roman Catholics there has doubled, to more than 100 million. One African-instituted church, the Harrist Church from Ivory Coast, claims 100,000 members and was named after a Liberian missionary, named William Harris. Christianity's growth in Africa has been aided by urbanization, economic uncertainty, also the embrace of African forms of worship, sacred music and dance.
      This growth has challanged the ecumenical goals of the council, which was founded 50 years ago largely by European and American clerics to advance the cause of unity. At its founding in 1948, the council had 147 member churches. Now the council -- which assembles every six to eight years -- has 339 Protestant and Orthodox Christian member churches, most from Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. (The Roman Catholic Church does not belong to the council but sends observers.)
      Their website can be found at http://www.wcc-coe.org.
• 12/17/98 U.S., Britain launch attack on Iraq (Operation Desert Fox).
• 12/20/98 Clinton impeached. First elected president to be impeached. Attack on Iraq called off.
• 12/21/98 Saddam: Iraqis defeated 'enemies of God' and emerged victorious after four days of air strikes, the heaviest since the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
• 12/29/98 Anti-Christian mobs attack four churches on Christmas Day. Surat, India - Angry Hindus burned a church in western India (village of Mulchand) and stormed three others with axes and hammers, sending Christian missionaries fleeing for safety. Members of two Hindu parties blamed for the violence are angered by the missionaries' efforts to convert poor tribal people.
• 12/29/98 Researchers: Anti-aging enzyme not cancer agent. A discovery earlier this year in a substance called telomerase is an "immortality enzyme" that encourages cells to keep dividing indefinitely instead of dying with age. Scientists theorized that telomerase could be used to slow the aging process. But some fear the enzyme could cause cancer by allowing cell division to run amok, although the results are still unconfirmed. It may also be used to treat cancer. It is true that telomerase enables cells to keep on dividing and avoid the normal process of aging and death. Human cells divide about 75 times over a lifetime. Each time a cell divides, the telomere, or the protective end of a chromosome, erodes. Eventually, the telomere becomes too short to protect the chromosome. When that happens, the cell can no longer divide and eventually dies. By adulthood, most healthy cells no longer contain any telomerase. But 90 percent of cancer cells have been found to have telomerase, raising suspicions that telomerase is linked to cancer.
• 12/30/98 Introducing a Common Currency, the Euro, American companies prepare for European currency switch.

Last updated December 31, 1998.