THE DAILY WAR!
Non-pagan/papal date: 11-28
THE HOLY ROMAN
B16 says that Lent is not a "heavy obligation" but rather a time of renewal for those who have found in Jesus the meaning of life.
(And: Full text of address)
EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
Two German intelligence agents in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein's plan to defend the Iraqi capital, which a German official passed on to US commanders a month before the invasion, according to a classified report by the US military.
EUROPE/RUSSIA
EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels today for a day of tough talks including Serbia's bid for Union membership, Israeli sanctions on the Palestinian government, and the Iranian nuclear program.
The "Visegrad Group" was supposed to become the core of this new geopolitical axis around which Warsaw intended to build an alternative center of gravity on the European continent.
Papers in Scandinavia and central Europe review the recently concluded Winter Olympics. The panic in Europe over bird flu, rather than the virus itself, is causing concern in Germany and Spain. And a French daily finds disparity in how Paris has reacted to the threat of bird flu in mainland France and how it has been handling an epidemic affecting a French island in the Indian Ocean.
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
The greatest fear of leaders throughout the Middle East is that an unrestrained civil war, if it ever comes to that, would not only give birth to warring Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves inside Iraq, but that the violence could also spread unpredictably through the region.
Shortly before the American-led invasion of Iraq, the head of the League of Arab States warned the attack would "open the gates of hell." Now, more than 3 years later, there is a sense around the Middle East that what was once viewed as quintessential regional hyperbole may instead have been darkly prescient.
Two bombs have exploded in the southern Iranian cities of Dezful and Abadan. The attacks are the latest in a series to hit the southern Khuzestan province, at the heart of Iran's oil industry.
Iran has reached a basic agreement with Russia on jointly enriching uranium, officials said on Sunday, but there was no immediate sign that Iran would suspend domestic enrichment.
(PTI: US mum on reports of accord)
Omar al-Bashir has said Darfur will become a graveyard for any foreign military contingent entering the region against Khartoum
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
President Bush arrives in Delhi for his first state visit this week, hoping to cement an increasingly close relationship between the US and India that has the potential to alter the strategic balance in the world for the rest of the century.
The congressional elections this coming November is the last chance for for Americans to reaffirm the separation of powers that is the basis of their civil liberties.
Shut 'em all down...
The IRS said yesterday it found a "disturbing" amount of illegal politicking in churches and charities after investigating complaints coming out of the 2004 election.
ECONOMY
Turnover continues at the top posts of the Federal Reserve, and the inexperience we find leading this institution is alarming at a crucial time when U.S. monetary policy is going where no man has gone before, where the Dollar's status as the world's currency reserve is about to be whacked. Interesting timing, with M-3 about to be hidden, with the Iran oil bourse about to only accept Euros.
Venezuela could easily sell oil to markets other than the US and is prepared to end exports to its #1 buyer if needed, the oil minister said. "If our country, our process, our constitution are attacked by the Bush administration, we are not going to send any more oil."
Despite soaring oil revenue in the Middle East and the uproar over the attempt by a Dubai company to control seaport terminals at several American ports, Arab countries have made little effort to acquire hard assets in the US.
MISC
Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo.
#11-28
