Time's Up, Nostradamus

By Melissa August, Autumn de Leon, Michelle Derrow, Aisha Durham, Daniel S. Levy, Lina Lofaro, Michelle Orecklin, David Spitz, Chris Taylor

Nostradamus is the subject of more than 40,000 Web pages and countless books, and his writings are studied throughout the world. But was he right? We'll soon see. In 1555 he made his most precise prediction, which can be translated as: "The year 1999, seven months, from the sky there will come the Great King of Terror to resuscitate the Great King of the Mongols." Nostrabuffs say this means that July will be full of earthquakes, tsunamis and satellites crashing into Earth. Then again, here are other things happening in July that he could have been talking about:

--On July 15, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the King of Terror to some, is scheduled to fly to Mongolia to renew trade talks with Mongolian President Natsagiin Bagabandi.

--The recent missile attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by the King of Superpowers, the U.S., is threatening to bring back Mao-like communist hard-liners, who once dominated Mongolia.

--On July 9, Media Terror Rupert Murdoch's Star TV broadcast the 1990 Chinese drama Chin Wong (The King of Gamblers) in Mongolia.

--On July 1, the Sundance-winning Genghis Blues, by enfant terrible Roko Belic, had its theatrical debut. The documentary, which follows bluesman Paul Pena's pilgrimage to a Mongolian border town, resuscitated the career of King of Mongolian Throat Singers Kongar-ol Ondar.

--And scariest of all, recovering Master of Terror Stephen King could always bring back that nastiest King of Mongrels, Cujo.