THE DAILY WAR!
Non-pagan/papal date: 10-08
THE HOLY ROMAN
The Turkish attacker who shot JP2 in 1981 will be released from prison in his homeland soon but the mystery behind one of the 20th century's most notorious assassination attempts remains.
"On this Sunday following the solemnity of the Epiphany, we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which ends the liturgical time of Christmas..."
B16 gave new impetus to dialogue with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches when receiving its representatives for the first time in audience.
Here is B16's address, delivered to cardinals, archbishops, bishops and members of the Roman Curia in the traditional exchange of Xmas greetings.
EUROPE/RUSSIA
The end of Britain's presidency of the EU last week has unleashed a barrage of demands from political leaders who want their favourite elements from the draft constitution to be "cherry-picked" from the moribund treaty and given independent life.
French dailies focus on tributes to a past president, and on the Socialist Party's hopes of a future one. In Germany, Angela Merkel's call for the US camp at Guantanamo Bay to be closed is broadly welcomed.
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
Ariel Sharon began breathing on his own after doctors started bringing him out of an induced coma to assess damage caused by his massive stroke.
The effort to dress up the Kurdish tyranny is just one of the more cynical efforts by the War Party to prettify an abominable abortion as the birth of "democracy" in Iraq.
Iran has decided to rewrite and revise the history of the Holocaust. Following the repeated declarations by the Iranian president and other senior government officials on the need to re-examine the history of the genocide of the Jews during WW2, the association of Islamic Journalists of Iran has been tasked with quickly putting together an international conference on the Holocaust.
Iran announced that inspectors from the UN nuclear monitoring agency were in the country and preparing to remove seals from nuclear research facilities no later than today.
If Iran removes UN seals and begins research on the production of nuclear fuel as it has threatened to do, it will face consequences, Germany's foreign minister said today.
Multiple pieces of independent evidence suggest that America is embarked in a premeditated path that will lead inexorably to the use of nuclear weapons against Iran in the very near future.
As yet another Iranian military aircraft crashes, this time killing the Commander of the Revoluitionary Guard's ground forces, the notion begins to appear, are there foreign operationals inside the country committing acts of sabotage?
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
While Abramoff is being painted as the embodiment of evil, he is only an exaggerated example of what Washington has become, a souk where the US government is bought and sold at auction.
ECONOMY
In late December, interest rates on 2-year U.S. Treasury notes rose higher than rates on 10-year notes. This yield curve inversion, as the phenomenon is known, sent the stock market into a brief tailspin and inspired a round of intense chin-tugging among economic analysts.
The world is changing for American investors. In the past decade or so, foreign stocks have become more easily accessible through mutual funds - and, sometimes, more profitable.
MISC
A whole unknown community of bacteria make their home in the human stomach, it has been discovered.
Q: How many men does it take to open a beer bottle? A: The woman’s supposed to have it open when she brings it to him.
#10-08
