THE HOLY ROMAN (visiting the) EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
Benedict XVI gave his cardinal's ring to the Black Virgin of Altoetting, at the most famous shrine of Germany and the "religious heart" of Bavaria. The first thing he did when arriving in Altoetting was to prostrate himself at the foot of the Blessed Virgin.
Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered during the Mass celebrated in the Islinger Feld park near Regensburg.
Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered to scientists at the University of Regensburg, where he was a professor and vice rector from 1969 to 1971.
Pope Benedict XVI weighed in on the delicate issue of rapport between Islam and the West: He said that violence, embodied in the Muslim idea of jihad, or holy war, is contrary to reason and God's plan, while the West was so beholden to reason that Islam could not understand it.
In the span of just a few days, Benedict XVI has turned twice to the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Germany will decide today whether to deploy ships in the Middle East as part of the UN force in Lebanon after resolving a standoff with Beirut about the force's mandate.
Bavaria opens the gates to a heaven of beer, pork knuckles and sausages this Saturday with the start of the 173rd Munich Oktoberfest, the world's biggest folk festival.
EUROPE/RUSSIA
European bishops have commissioned a high-profile group of thinkers to draft a report on the EU's common values, in a move which could spur the debate on the need to include Christianity in a new EU treaty text.
A U.S. Congressional adviser is turning up the volume on his long-standing warnings that terrorists who have set up camps in the Balkans now easily can reach into Europe.
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is "a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations. Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of Lebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda.
Who could possibly have an interest in attacking the American embassy? If it had succeeded, however, the most likely consequence would have been a sharp increase in pressure directed against Syria by the United States government. This would have played into the hands of sections of the American establishment who have been pushing for military actions against Syria and/or Iran.
Who attacked the US embassy in Damascus - and why? The attack on the embassy underscores the reality of what is going on in the Levant, with Syria at the epicenter of a brewing Islamist storm – and the U.S. and Israel objectively allied with radical Islamists seeking "regime change" in Damascus.
The attack today against the United States embassy in Damascus was orchestrated by American intelligence to embarrass the Syrian regime and extract political concessions, a senior member of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath Party claimed.
Six world powers abandoned attempts today to issue a joint statement criticizing Iran's nuclear defiance after China and Russia refused to endorse U.S.-backed tough language, diplomats said.
Visiting Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said in Yerevan, Armenia, that the Iranian government, with a strong mandate from the nation, will never yield to the will of bullying powers.
A senior Sudanese parliamentarian accused UN Secretary General Kofi Annan of spearheading a US-engineered conspiracy against Khartoum following a stark warning issued by the world body and Washington over the situation in Darfur.
Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt will hold talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a summit in Hamburg. DW-WORLD.DE spoke with Schmidt about his ties to China and the country's growing global clout.
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
On Monday night, President Bush offered yet another in a series of speeches designed to rally the country to his various wars and occupations. His performance showed the degree to which this administration has become unmoored from the mundane confines of reality.
ECONOMY
You can always tell when we Americans have been horn-swoggled by big oil and its bought-and-paid-for big government. We smile in relief when we buy gas at $2.30-$2.40 a gallon. Gas prices will rise again in a little more than 60 days—after the midterm congressional elections on Nov. 7. Big oil does not want its buddies in the Beltway to lose the grip on any branch of government. Lo and behold, per-gallon prices have dropped, although there is less stability in the Middle East and more hostility directed toward the U.S. from oil producing Middle East countries than we have seen in a long time.
MISC
After a globe-trotting campaign by virulently anti-US President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has locked in the votes to win a seat on the UN Security Council. "We are going to use our voice in the Security Council ... in favor of the democratization of the United Nations. We are going to raise our voice whenever someone tries to use the international system's agencies to subjugate peoples."
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