THE DAILY WAR!
Non-pagan/papal date: 11-10
THE HOLY ROMAN
Here is a translation of the address B16 gave at yesterday's general audience. He commented on the second part of Psalm 144(145).
Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic organization with powerful members and a reputation for secrecy, is trying to change its public image.
EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
Today, Ernst Zündel, a Holocaust denier, faces a German court on charges of inciting racial hatred and defaming the dead. The case shows that while Germany guarantees freedom of expression, there are limits.
Angela Merkel might be Europe's darling for her latest foreign policy efforts, but things are less friendly at home where unemployment has hit the painful 5 million mark.
Germany has defended its position as the world's export champion for the 3rd year in a row in 2005, data released Wednesday showed.
Germany rejected an EU call to accept more workers from the 10 new EU member states, saying it needs to protect the country's job market.
EUROPE/RUSSIA
Has the US simply found a supporter in Europe or has Poland lost its notorious pride?
Iran has upped the ante in the cartoon culture wars by cutting off trade ties with Denmark and threatening to do the same to other European countries. German papers see Tehran's move as calculated to win support in the Muslim world for its controversial nuclear program.
As worldwide Muslim protests against the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad continue, so too does coverage in the European press.
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
Everything Benjamin Netanyahu warned about has come to pass -- yet he has gained no benefit from it in the Israeli election campaign: Why not?
A Christian organization here has decided to move its headquarters from Jerusalem to a West Bank community in protest of Israel's announced withdrawal from the area and is calling on Christians worldwide to help save the territory, which many refer to as Israel's "biblical heartland."
An Iranian vice president said he did not believe that the US would attack his country and compared Donald Rumsfeld to a vampire showing its teeth. "They still cannot leave (those 2 countries), it is impossible for them to invade Iran."
The Arab Gulf states may fear the potential of a politically militant Iran, with or without nuclear capability. But they and their oil clients -- especially in Asia, which is much more dependent on Gulf oil than America is -- fear that US political preoccupations may be a greater threat to the region, and its ability to supply energy, than Iran is.
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
A shift in the Bush administration's approach to the world from "with us or against us" to diplomacy has led to the coinage of a new phrase - "neo-realism" - to describe the philosophy of the key figures behind the president's foreign policy.
(LT: Neo-cons no more)
The Pentagon sent Congress a long-term strategy document that makes clear Washington’s intentions to use the additional billions to wage an aggressive campaign of global militarism.
ECONOMY
Beginning in 2003, Iran began demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in dollars. The risk to the US does not involve how oil is priced since pricing is a largely technical issue needed to establish transaction values. The real issue is foreign-currency reserves.
Is there no end to it? And what happens when the hustler loses his contract and cannot pay his mortgage? What happens if his asset – the house – declines in price? Will that unpaid mortgage simply vanish, no harm done? We are about to find out, dear reader.
MISC
Many professionals are giving up keyboards for a 'dirt-in-the fingernail' life and possible profit.
Forget Osama bin Laden. Forget North Korea’s menace and Iran’s nuclear threats. The greatest danger to society is right here on our doorsteps — Wal-Mart.
Our definitions of beauty have more to do with basic survival instinct than with poetry.
Famous chemist Alan Adler who studied samples of the shroud of Turin made a sensational statement not long ago. The researcher said there was blood on the shroud and it was shed by a man who died a violent death.
#11-10
