I just can't let B16's historic visit to Bavaria pass in silence, so I'm going to send this out today and try to do one each day until he goes back home to Rome. (And who knows, I might just keep going.).
Also, don't forget that you can also view this on The Daily WAR blog at: http://thedailyworldaffairsreport.blogspot.com. Bonus: Just by clicking on the 2 Google ads displayed above the newsletter you can help finance The WAR. So do your part and give your "2-clicks-a-day"! :-)
THE HOLY ROMAN ...
Bavarian president-minister Edmund Stoiber hopes to speak to Pope Benedict XVI about relations with Islam when the two meet on September 9 at the start of the Pontiff's visit to his homeland. Stoiber will be meeting with the Pope for the 3rd time since his election as Roman Pontiff.
In returning to Bavaria, the pope is honoring the stronghold of Catholicism in Germany. Around 7.2 million Catholics live in the wealthy state, representing a quarter of all Catholics in the country.
Vandals threw paint-filled balloons at the house where Pope Benedict XVI was born Sunday, a day before the pontiff planned to visit his hometown.
The inhabitants of the Bavarian village Marktl-am-Inn where Pope Benedict XVI was born are praying that he will give them more than the cursory 15 minutes of fame allotted in his schedule during a visit to Germany this week.
[WAR: Remember what I mentioned when B16 was first elected - that The Antichrist was born in an Inn to Joseph and Mary, and "died" on Passover (gave up being "Joseph Ratzinger" and now known only as "Benedict XVI").]
This will be no mere sentimental journey. Even here in Bavaria, Germany's conservative and Catholic heartland, it will be in some ways a survey of the shrunken remnant that is the European church - and the perhaps impossible task this new pope faces in rebuilding it.
Pope Benedict XVI warned on Sunday that the modern world was becoming "deaf" to God's message, as he gave the first open-air mass of his visit to his native region of Bavaria.
As the pope prepares for his upcoming visit to Bavaria, the Vatican has embarked on an unprecedented campaign to market the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. By selling official fan paraphernalia, the church plans to turn a profit from the hype surrounding Pope Benedict XVI.
... EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
[WAR: This is the official website for the new exhibit in Germany on the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Half the exhibit is in Berlin and the other half in Magdeburg. Click on either city, and then click on the "English version" at the bottom.]
But the big political parties are still losing voters to smaller ones. And a fault line has shown up in recent weeks in the CDU, between those who want the party to push for more economic freedom and reform and those who do not want it to be too “capitalist”.
| |
Germany's trade with the Middle East is thriving, said Economics Minister Michael Glos (Christian Social Union).
German and Arab political and business leaders are holding a 3-day meeting in Berlin this week with industry from Europe's biggest economy hoping to cash in on the economic upswing that has taken hold in the Arab world.
[WAR: These 2 articles brought to mind Psalm 83:2-8: "See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. 'Come,' they say, 'let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.' With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you - the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot." Now, is this plot aimed at the real Israel or the state of Israel?]
Germany has come closer to deploying its navy in the Middle East following Israel's lifting of its crippling 3-week naval blockade of Lebanon on Friday.
The US is attempting to arrange for Germany to patrol the border between Syria and Lebanon to prevent arms smuggling. No agreement on German patrols has yet been finalized between Washington and Berlin, as Germany is still waiting for Lebanon's reaction to the proposal.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently forwarded a letter to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Unlike his first letter to Bush, President Ahmadinejad in his letter to Merkel, has touched on his country's nuclear issue, where he has stressed that Iran's decision for the acquisition of the nuclear technology is irrevocable.
Chancellor Merkel, who has worked to boost ties with the US since taking office, rebuked Washington on the use of secret prisons by the CIA.
EUROPE/RUSSIA
In Germany it has long been customary for the government, in the interests of consensus politics and social stability, to give “the social partners”—the catch-all name for employers' associations, trade unions and other interest groups—special privileges when writing new laws. So far Europe has seen two different methods of economic reform. In one everyone is gathered round the table to hammer out something more or less acceptable to all. For most west European countries, for whom good relations with the social partners are a way of life, this remains the ideal. But it has become increasingly clear that, for it to work, a country must not only be facing an unmistakable economic crisis (to focus everyone's attention), but also be small. In small places, everyone knows each other and it is easier to share the pain of reform equitably. Neither condition is fulfilled in the big three continental countries.
Nicolas Sarkozy, a leading contender for the French presidency in elections next spring, said that he would seek a radical restructuring of European Union institutions and the suspension of membership talks with Turkey if he won. "We now have to say who is European and who is not," said Sarkozy, interior minister in the current government. "Leaving this question unanswered is no longer possible."
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
Exclusive: the world is "doomed," Jordan's King Abdullah II tells TIME, if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not solved by 2007.
According to a report released by the Press Department of the Presidential Office, the Iranian president reminded the ambassadors that expansion of bilateral relations with European states based on justice and maintaining mutual interest was a priority of Iranian foreign policy.
Michael Coren, a sort of spin-off on the lunatic Michael "Savage", the beatnik fascist hate radio host, demands the United States nuke Iran immediately.
Already a byword for appalling bloodshed, Sudan's Darfur region is now threatened with worse: a “man-made catastrophe of an unprecedented scale”, says the United Nations. But it is China that could do most to persuade its friend to accept UN assistance and end the killing in Darfur. China is not only Africa's most enthusiastic new investor, it is also bidding for a bigger role in world affairs.
[WAR: China being in Sudan is the setting up of the future clash between the "kings of the east" with the "king of the north". After Germany (kingdom of the north) invades Sudan (kingdom of the south) in retaliation for the latter's "push" against the former -- and also "invade(s) many countries ... (including) the Beautiful Land" -- then China will be forced to intervene militarily to protect its vital interests there and in the region. See the articles below on the global battle over energy.]
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
There is something important to be learned from the recent experience of the United States and Israel in the Middle East: that massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out.
The brawler's back, with a new appeal to nativism.
MISC
The global economy is booming, and experts predict it will stay healthy. But competition for natural resources will change the balance of power among the world's nations as a new age of conflicts over energy begins. In a new online series, Spiegel documents the global competition for dwindling supplies of natural resources.
Oil and gas supplies are becoming scarcer and more expensive. The hunt for the world's remaining resources is creating new alliances and the danger of fresh conflicts. China is moving aggressively to satiate its growing appetite for energy, potentially setting up a confrontation with the United States over the dwindling resources of the Middle East and Africa.
With a rapidly expanding economy, China doesn't have enough of its own natural resources to cover its growing energy needs.
In a Spiegel interview, United States oil expert Daniel Yergin discusses fears of a global energy crisis, the growing confidence of oil-rich nations and changes in world politics caused by rising energy prices.
