"The WAR on error"
Benedict XVI met with German President Horst Köhler and discussed the situation in the Middle East and also stressed the need for solidarity with Africa and interreligious dialogue.
I believe the Pope is convinced of the need for dialogue between Christians and Muslims at the cultural and religious level. The Regensburg address, which was not an address on Islam, has raised a storm of criticisms, protests and controversies, within and outside the Church. This means that there is a long way to go and that voices are not always harmonized.
On Friday, when addressing the U.N. General Assembly gathered in special session, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, called for "a new and all-embracing vision that will usher in concrete plans for peace." "The only peace with a chance of lasting in the region will be a truly comprehensive one. It will involve all major players in the Middle East region and it will have to be based upon bilateral peace treaties and multilateral agreements on all questions of common concern, including water, environment and trade. To do so requires a new and all-embracing vision that will usher in concrete plans for peace."
(Zenit: Full text of UN statement)
Mainstream newspapers have jumped into the fray to defend the right to make religious jokes. It is "hard to resist" spoofing a pope "who seems to have been raised in libraries and not among people."
Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office said today a terrorist plot had been foiled and six people were temporarily taken into custody over an alleged plan to bomb a passenger jet here over the summer.
The United States is putting pressure on Germany to deploy combat troops to help put down the Taleban insurgency in southern Afghanistan, the German press reported yesterday.
Finnish officials were working against the clock yesterday to deal with demands from the Polish government that are threatening to block an EU-Russia summit meeting scheduled for Friday in Helsinki. "The summit is hanging in the balance. We are now waiting for a response from the Polish side. The ball is in their court."
The diplomatic initiative for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement was not coordinated ahead of time with Israel for fear that its government would try to thwart it, the Spanish Foreign Minister said.
With signs of a civil war in Iraq already visible on the horizon, analysts warn that hanging Saddam Hussein would drown the entire Middle East region into a bloody civil conflict.
As world attention is fixed on events in the Middle East, particularly the continuing meltdown of the American occupation in Iraq, another crisis brews. It is the coming showdown between the U.S. and Russia, centered in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. What seems like a small, obscure dispute could balloon into a major crisis because of the stakes involved. The problem is that the conflict may turn hot with frightening swiftness.
A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter has said.
Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more? Critical decisions will be made in the next few months, the former CIA official said. “Bush has followed Cheney’s advice for six years, and the story line will be: ‘Will he continue to choose Cheney over his father?’"
The White House has dismissed an article about Washington's intentions toward Iran by US journalist Seymour Hersh.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that reports of possible military attacks by Israel and the United States against Iran's nuclear facilities are not serious and part of a "psychological war."
[WAR: Does he really believe this, or is this part of his own psycho-war?]
Obviously, the initial funding of Militant Islam by the CIA under the leadership of Robert Gates, and the idiocy of the unprovoked invasion of Iraq have united these "stirred up Moslems" into a force that Bush, Cheney, et al., say requires a never ending pre-emptive wars. The immediate announcement of Rumsfeld’s departure as Secdef and Gates’ appointment to succeed him after the Democratic victory was a well-planned event. Bush wanted to get the Gates confirmation secured in the lame duck session while the Republicans still controlled the Senate.
Whether a different kind of international system or a different kind of America would be preferable is a debate worth having. But let us have this debate about our future without illusions about our past.
Chuck Norris on...
Over the past couple of years there has been much debate over the civil display of religious inscriptions, like the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue). I was shocked to read this past week Bob Unruh's exclusives on WND about how the U.S. Supreme Court is even now silencing the truths about the Commandments in its own building. People often say to stay clear of discussing religion and politics. True patriots don't do that.
Playing with fire...
At security posts dotted around the fields between the Jura mountains and Lake Geneva scientists are installing hi-tech retina scans above shafts descending 80m down - and leading to the largest scientific instrument ever built. The machine is being bolted together inside a tunnel 17 miles long, and when the power is thrown on next year it will recreate conditions unknown for 14 billion years since the extraordinary fireball that marked the beginning of the universe - the big bang which blasted time and space into existence. The project may prise open extra dimensions and create baby black holes; it may reveal enigmatic "dark energy" that drives the expansion of the universe. It should certainly discover what some call the "God particle", finally answering the embarrassingly simple but elusive question of why things have mass.
5 most detrimental foods
Nutritionists have finally come up with a list of 5 most damaging foodstuffs for man.
Nutritionists have finally come up with a list of 5 most damaging foodstuffs for man.
The DaVinci Code DVD
[WAR: This one slipped in under my radar. Remember how I mentioned that the movie was released on the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread? Well, the DVD was released last Tuesday on the 7th Day of Tabernacles. I just find that quite interesting.]
[WAR: This one slipped in under my radar. Remember how I mentioned that the movie was released on the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread? Well, the DVD was released last Tuesday on the 7th Day of Tabernacles. I just find that quite interesting.]
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