THE DAILY WAR!
Non-pagan/papal date: 11-13
THE HOLY ROMAN
The Catholic Church and all Christians have a valuable role to play in bringing about a more just world, B16 insists in his first encyclical. A significant section of the encyclical's second part is dedicated to a look at where the divide between Caesar and God should lie in today's secular environment.
EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
The new German chancellor has made a promising start—but bigger challenges lie ahead.
(Survey: Germany waiting for a wunder*)
Things don't look good at the moment for Germany's trade relations with Iran, according to AFP. Alongside the international row over Iran's nuclear programme, the threat of Iranian boycotts of European products in the furore over the Mohammed cartoons also poses a threat to German companies that do business in the region.
EUROPE/RUSSIA
Campaigning for Italy's April general election officially opened after several tense weeks of accusations between conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-left opposition candidate Romano Prodi.
Very low birth rates in Europe may be here to stay.
Concerns about security have driven the liberalisation of Europe's energy market into reverse.
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has urged the EU to combat what it terms Islamophobia and which it says should be equated with xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
A Muslim leader behind a mass rally in London yesterday gave a warning of "fire throughout the world" if the West continues to publish cartoons of Mohammed.
Iran's hard-line president on Saturday accused the US and Europe of being "hostages of Zionism" and said they should pay a heavy price for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have triggered worldwide protests.
Iran's foreign ministry has played down a threat by the country's president to pull out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty if Tehran
Planners with the Pentagon's Central Command and Strategic Command are working closely with Donald Rumsfeld to develop working plans for a devastating strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. "This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a top Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."
Iran is prepared to launch attacks using long-range missiles, secret commando units, and terrorist allies planted around the globe in retaliation for any strike on the country's nuclear facilities, according to new US intelligence assessments and military specialists. ''There could be a cycle of escalation."
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
Paradoxically, Bush & Company’s relentless push for world hegemony seems to be Balkanizing the world, that is, splintering countries, regions, even zip codes, into smaller units, which are more hostile to each other though ethnically more homogenous.
Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers were not overly optimistic. Their Constitution, intended to postpone a slide into tyranny, cleverly separated government into 3 branches.
I contend such straw men questions, and bogeyman warnings about populist leaders like Chavez, are really what miss the mark. By a long shot. Without a doubt, the most pressing query has to be: “How can George W. Bush be stopped before he destroys the world?” You know, just like people asked about Adolf Hitler.
[WAR: This is what will be asked in the very near future. And Germany's answer will be to hit us with an EMP - with B16's blessing.]
It is official military policy that the US will prevent any challenge from rivals via limitless spending and military preemption. This relatively new and radical doctrine is a result of 30 years of behind the scenes neoconservative machinations. It provides unlimited opportunities for neocon power brokering of military spending, permanent political positioning on the high strategic rhetorical ground of "defending America", and opportunities to direct and channel American military might against Israeli rivals.
While the US since 9/11 has become fixated on the Muslim world, a region much closer to home has been quietly spinning out of American control.
A growing number of Americans would like fewer entanglements with foreigners.
ECONOMY
In “Hedgehogging”, his engaging memoir-cum-treatise on the “never-ending search for investment acorns”, Mr Biggs never lets the reader forget that even for the greatest investors, disaster may be but a trade away.
| |
MISC
The UN has drawn up plans to privatise the bulk of its staff at its New York headquarters or have their work done more cheaply overseas. The move is in response to mounting demands for reform from the US, its biggest paymaster.
A much-maligned alternative to oil comes of age.
China, despite its poor record on human rights and outright ban on most non-state-run religion, still holds on to some traditional values abandoned by most western nations. These values have led censors there to ban the homosexual propaganda film, Brokeback Mountain. The United Arab Emirates has followed suit. More middle-eastern countries are expected to follow UAEs lead.
* thedailywarrior@gmail.com / warnews
#11-13
