"The WAR on error"
Benedict XVI and his collaborators in the Roman Curia reaffirmed the importance of priestly celibacy, and stressed the need for a "human and Christian formation" for priests and seminarians. The decision was confirmed in a communiqué issued by the Vatican press office, after a special meeting held in the Apostolic Palace.
Spreading her legs and her lies...
"Diplomacy of the Gospel" is the objective Archbishop Dominique Mamberti has set himself at the start of his tenure as Vatican secretary for relations with states. The archbishop explained this during his first meeting with representatives of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.
Here is the address that Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations at Geneva, gave at the 3rd Special Session of the Human Rights Council.
More intrigue...
Just to thicken the plot, the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper offered a slightly different account of events. The paper says Schröder offered Stoiber the chancellorship. Stoiber reportedly discussed the offer with the CSU's General Secretary, Markus Söder, and four other party representatives. However he is reported to have ultimately rejected the proposal because he didn't want to split up the longstanding CDU/CSU alliance. Sources close to the SPD told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the CSU's version of events are likely a "tit-for-tat response" to Schröder's scathing characterization of Stoiber in his memoirs.
Veronica Zent Goldston, Central Asian Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch spoke with DW-WORLD.DE about the EU's decision to maintain its arms embargo and Visa ban on Uzbekistan and what this means for human rights. "Germany has been at the forefront of calling for the sanctions to be eased, if not lifted altogether. We feel that Germany is bringing into questions its own integrity and we are extremely concerned by what we see."
At the November 24 E.U.-Russia summit, Brussels is hoping to sign a Cooperation and Partnership Agreement that covers a myriad of issues, including standardized trade and investing rules in the energy sector. Europe's reliance on Russia for 50% of natural gas imports and 25% of its oil imports have sparked disunity among E.U. states.
Spain, France and Italy offered a Mideast peace initiative yesterday, asserting that Europe must take a lead role in trying to end years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed they called intolerable. "We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes."
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that Israel rejected out of hand a new peace initiative sponsored by Spain, Italy and France, which calls for increased international intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Livni told her Spanish counterpart that it was unacceptable for an initiative concerning Israel to be launched without cooridnation with Jerusalem.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Israel's rejection of a new European peace initiative was proof the country did not want peace. Haniyeh said the rejection was "proof that Israel doesn't want any form of stability or quiet in the region."
Christian Zionism, a belief that paradise for Christians can only be achieved once Jews are in control of the Holy Land, is gathering strength in the United States and forging alliances that are giving increasingly weird shape to American policy toward the Middle East. The irony of the alliance between Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists is that the one ideology promotes the ultimate destruction of the other. As Smith pointed out, the "Christians United for Israel" is all about Israel, not about the Israelis, and only a little surface digging into Christian Zionism shows how anti-Semitic it really is.
As wild speculations are making the rounds in world capitals about possible changes in Iraq policy, one insane option, known as the anti-Shi'ite coalition, has been sneaked onto the agenda by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. If this project were to be realized, it would not only accelerate the widening civil conflict inside Iraq, but draw neighboring forces into a region-wide war along sectarian lines.
Iran has consistently opposed the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, but new prospects of a stepped-up American withdrawal are prompting growing unease in the Islamic Republic, where many fear the repercussions of a dangerously unstable neighbor.
Just over a week after American voters expressed their opposition to the war in Iraq, Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on Wednesday provided further confirmation that there will be no rapid withdrawal of troops or end to the US occupation. The hearings were staged quite consciously to undercut popular antiwar sentiment and to address instead what the Bush administration must do to shore up the US occupation. Far from ending the war, it involves a military build up and a confrontation with the Shiite militias that will inevitably produce a bloodbath for the Iraqi people and a further descent into the quagmire for US soldiers.
Sudan's vice president yesterday rejected a U.N. proposal to send international troops to Darfur as a threat to his country's sovereignty, and accused the United States of undermining the Khartoum government. "The U.S. is trying to impose its control in Africa, especially because of the oil resources in Africa."
Israel's elder statesman Shimon Peres has slammed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom the Jewish state considers its arch enemy, as a "Persian version of Hitler".
In his address to the General Assembly of the Jewish Communities of North America in Los Angeles earlier this week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made it clear that Israel and Iran were headed down a road of confrontation. It is hard to interpret his message any differently: "We have reached the pivotal moment of truth regarding Iran... Our integrity will remain intact only if we prevent Iran's devious goals, not if we try our best but fail."
Substitute Friday Prayers leader of Tehran, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said here today that the President Bush has committed a "strategic mistake". "George Bush's policies on the world and the Middle East region inflicted the most damage to the US nation."
Ségolène Royal moved a step closer to becoming the first female president of France early Friday, crushing her two male rivals for the Socialist Party nomination in next April's election.
On its first day of broadcasting, Al-Jazeera International provided a fast-paced, first-rate lens to the Middle East and Africa. It also proved that it was indeed different from the BBC and CNN - by ignoring some of the world's most-important news events.
Today in Scripture
"On the 24th day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of YAHWEH their ELOHIM for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping YAHWEH their ELOHIM." (Neh 9:1-3)
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