"The WAR on error"
"After speaking at length of the great Apostle Paul, today we take into consideration two of his closest collaborators: Timothy and Titus. To them are addressed three letters traditionally attributed to Paul, of which two are destined to Timothy and one to Titus."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience yesterday. During their 15-minute conversation, the two leaders discussed the prospects for peace in the Middle East, and the stalled negotiations to complete a juridical pact between Israel and the Holy See.
The Holy See laments that until now no "effective actions" have been taken to put an end to the tragedy in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Here is the text of Benedict XVI's message for World Day of Peace 2007.
A major exhibit in Rome on the most celebrated statue of antiquity. Pope Julius II had it brought to the Vatican – for reasons identical to those maintained by Benedict XVI in Regensburg.
Many Romans venerated the sun, whose birthday was Dec. 25, or a virility god named Mithra with the same birthday. Also, the Romans observed a raucous celebration called Saturnalia Dec. 17-23. Thus, Dec. 25 offered a date with a good theological basis that also would counter several pagan holidays.
Anyone looking for evidence of Chancellor Merkel's greater visibility on the world stage need only check her agenda this week. Two days after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Sunday, in which the two discussed Middle East peace, Israeli president Ehud Olmert stopped by the Chancellery. "She seems to me to be one of the most serious and responsible leaders that Europe has had in years," Mr. Olmert told Der Spiegel. Many foreign capitals share that sentiment. And next year, Ms. Merkel's role will broaden as Germany assumes the European Union presidency and prepares to host the annual G-8 summit.
With the EU set to expand to 27 members next month and new divisions emerging between Berlin and Paris in foreign and economic policy, the power of the Franco-German axis looks weaker than it has for many years.
The division of Cyprus is one of Europe's longest-running crises. By taking in the south immediately after its rejection of the Annan plan, the EU has ensured its indefinite continuation. In so doing, it has behaved shoddily by the Turkish Cypriots and demonstrated the strategic perspicacity of a mole. In that light, Mr Rehn's words about the need to prepare properly for entry reek of hypocrisy.
An Israeli television station broadcast candid footage that appeared to show Olmert, during his first official visit to Rome, coaching Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on what to say during their joint press conference. "It is important that you emphasize the three principles of the Quartet - that they are not negotiated (sic). They are the basis for everything," Olmert says, referring to Western demands that Hamas Islamists who run the Palestinian government soften their views before peace talks with Israel can begin. "Please say this?" Olmert asks his nodding counterpart in English.
German press on...
In an interview on German TV, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indirectly revealed that Israel is - surprise! - a nuclear power. Intentional or not, the Freudian slip was a political bombshell, notably in Olmert's native Israel.
It's difficult to put the the nuclear genie back in the bottle once it's been let out. But that's just what Ehud Olmert is trying to do after appearing to list Israel as one of the nuclear states. Europe, though, wants to know what he actually meant.
Iran spokesman
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the confession of the Zionist regime's prime minister that Israel has nuclear military potential shows real threat to the Middle East security and stability.
"The ambiguity so far has been useful, and we have never threatened the region with a nuclear catastrophe. But sometimes there is no way out of it. It has been the right policy; it has helped Israel. The Arabs, knowing that Israel is a nuclear superpower and a conventional weapons superpower, probably reduced their aspirations or limited their plans" to attack Israel.
A Lebanese analyst of military affairs said here on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran has dictated many realities despite Israel's will, and regarded as red line by Tel Aviv thus far. "Relying on sound wisdom, perseverance, and trust in God, Iran has managed to usher many developments in the world."
Russia produced amendments on Wednesday to a draft European resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions but said none appeared to block any final agreement.
Nuclear fuel supplies to Bushehr nuclear power plant will begin in March 2007, according to an earlier adopted plan and preliminary steps for the supplies will be taken in January 2007.
On Monday, in an interview with German TV, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made an ostensible “slip” in which he tacitly admitted that Israel possessed nuclear weapons. In reality, Olmert was issuing a deliberate threat directed primarily against Iran.
Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said in The Hague that giving security guarantees to Iran could help dispel the international crisis caused by Tehran's nuclear program."To avoid Iran going for enrichment, one must go into the concerns they have ... they might be concerned by an attack of the US."
The report by the Iraq Study Group is an attempt by elder statesmen of the American political establishment to take U.S. foreign policy out of the incompetent hands of President Bush and the self-serving hands of the Israeli Lobby. The real problem is the Israeli Lobby's powerful influence – about which the Lobby brags – over U.S. policy in the Middle East and Israel's inflexibility toward the Palestinians, whose land Israel has stolen. As long as Israel exercises a veto over U.S. policy in the Middle East, the powder keg will remain alight.
A new U.S. military command for Africa, meant to strengthen America's defense against potential threats from the continent, is expected to be created within two months. Pentagon officials increasingly point to the growing strategic importance of Africa and raise concerns about potential threats that could emerge from the continent's war-torn areas.
Germany wants major economic powers to explore ways to make it easier for investors and others to obtain information about hedge funds, whose rapid growth has brought worries that they could pose a risk to the worldwide financial system. Under its presidency, Germany hopes to bring the group of major industrial powers "back to its roots," meaning concentrating on economic matters and financial issues.
A report scheduled to be released by the Treasury Department tomorrow is expected to show the true deficit in the Bush administration's 2006 federal budget to be an astounding $3.5 trillion in the red, not $248.2 billion as previously reported.
A gold bug is a believer in the public’s use of gold coins as the basis for a nation’s money supply. Because very few university-certified economists are gold bugs, and very few gold bugs are academic economists, there is enormous confusion on all sides regarding gold: why it is valuable, why it serves as money, why gold money is necessary for freedom, and why we don’t need a government-guaranteed gold standard in order to have a gold standard.
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