Three Queensland hospitals are battling outbreaks of the highly infectious norovirus which has struck down almost 150 patients and staff.

Queensland Health on Tuesday said the Royal Brisbane and Woman's (RBWH), Gold Coast and Cairns Base hospitals had been affected by the virus, which causes vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea, stomach cramps, fever and headaches.

About 40 percent of the world's population are at risk from dengue, and the mosquito-borne virus has spread rapidly across Southeast Asia this year due to warmer weather, heavy rains and crowded cities.

Last night I was watching a documentary on Noah's ark that I had taped some months ago. The documentary detailed photographic evidence of the ark's existence on Mount Ararat in the Turkish-Armenian border, and included eyewitness accounts of several individuals who claim to have seen what has become known as the "Ararat anomaly". While seeing the photo of the boat and seeing the reconstruction of the ark made by the film producers, it struck me in a big way that all of humanity (as we know it today) was once holed up inside that boat, while the rest of the unbelieving world was perishing. I don't know whether it was watching that, or whether it was the news of the worst floods in Britain in sixty years, but last night I had another nightmare, for the third night in a row. This time I dreamed my niece, now 8 years old, was just a young child again. She was lying in front of me in a small cot, and flood waters were coming up around our ankles. I felt her back which was soaking wet and very cold, and I motioned to someone else in my family that her chances were not good. For some reason I knew that none of us would survive, that the floodwaters would continue to rise and drown us all. It made me think about those that have been caught up in the recent flooding across the world, and made me wonder what it must have been like to experience the flood in Noah's time. It also made me think about the physical reality of God's judgements, that just as the Lord destroyed the earth with a flood and saved those who believed the message and trusted in their ark of salvation, the world once again stands on the brink of a catastrophic global judgement. The ark on Mount Ararat stands as a witness to a fallen world that God's judgements are very real, and that unless they repent and turn to Christ for salvation, there is no hope - period. One of the illustrations the Lord used of His Second Coming was, that it would be "as it was in the days of Noah", Matthew 24:37. The people in Noah's day were given 120 years advanced notice, but the Lord says that in one day the "flood came and took them all away", Matthew 24:39. This world has had 2000 years advanced warning, and its judgement will come with similar speed. Are you ready for heaven? Have your sins been forgiven? Trust in Jesus Christ for salvation today.

Source Turkish Times

Luke 21:6, 20-22
[As for] these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down... And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

Luke 23:28-30
But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed [are] the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

Many other disastrous events have also befallen the Jewish people on this date in history...

10 spies brought back an evil report of the promised land (Numbers 14:1).
586 BC - First Temple destroyed. 
70 AD - Second Temple destroyed. 
135 - Rome's takeover of Israel complete. 
136 - Roman emperor desecrated Temple. 
1096 - Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade, murdering masses of Jews. 
1290 - Jews expelled from England. 
1306 - Jews expelled from France. 
1492 - Jewish expulsion from Spain completed on this date.
1648 - Chmelnicky massacred thousands of Polish Jews. 
1914 - World War I began, culminating in World War II and the Nazi Holocaust.
2005 - End of legal Jewish residence in Gush Katif.

But those that gather at the Western Wall also long for the day when the Temple will be rebuilt. 

Quote: ""It is clear that one need not refrain from going to the Western Wall [on Tisha B'Av] for fear of meeting friends and being happy. My father and teacher [Rabbi Zalman Melamed] has said that there is no greater rectification [tikun, in Hebrew] for Tisha B'Av than to go to the Wall, the remnant of the destruction, and to pray for the Holy Temple to be speedily rebuilt in our days. On the contrary, the fact that many people go there enhances the power of the prayer, and increases Divine honor."

The Jews hope that "Divine honour" will be bestowed upon them by praying at the wall, yet the Lord Jesus said Israel would not see their Messiah again until they were prepared to say, "Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord", Luke 13:35. The prophecy of Daniel seems to indicate that a Third Temple will be rebuilt during the tribulation period. Daniel 9:27 states that the Antichrist, the European leader who will broker a peace agreement in the Middle East, will cause the sacrifices to cease and desecrate the Temple. Preparations are already being made in Israel for the rebuilding of the Temple. The High Priest's garments have been manufactured by the Temple Institute, along with other objects used in the administration of the Temple, such as the Golden Menorah, the Laver and the Table of Showbread. Priests are currently being trained in Israel on how to perform Temple duties, and last week we had the first public gathering of the Tribe of Levi since the destruction of the Second Temple. It is my opinion that Israel will be permitted to rebuild the Temple as part of the Antichrist's peace agreement in the Middle East. They will do so in unbelief, and once more will mourn the desecration of their Temple. Only when the nation has nowhere else to turn to, or nobody else to turn to, will they look unto Him whom they pierced - Yeshua HaMashiach.

Zechariah 12:10
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.

Source Arutz 7, Light of Zion