"The WAR on error"
In the decade after WW2, more than 100,000 babies were born to unwed German mothers and Allied soldier fathers. Most of the men left Europe without ever meeting their children. Now, many "occupation babies" are scrambling to find their fathers before it's too late.
Angela Merkel, German chancellor, yesterday moved a significant step closer towards realising ambitious health reforms as a mooted rebellion against the overhaul of the century-old healthcare system appeared to be collapsing. The climbdown by powerful regional politicians from her own CDU is a further boost for the chancellor who has entered the new year on a political high. Only Bavaria, led by Edmund Stoiber, the veteran arch-conservative, last night signalled a willingness to continue the fight.
German papers...
During her brief visit to Washington, Chanceller Merkel will seek to deepen economic ties between the US and EU and to jumpstart the Middle East peace process. But with a lame duck president and a Congress hungry for revenge, her prospects may be slim.
UPI analysis
The German government has a set of initiatives in the bag for the many challenges it faces during its EU and G8 presidencies
Germany's best policy for its EU presidency would be to do nothing. All the important policy issues facing EU member countries are issues of national politics, not the EU, and as France will hold its presidential election during Germany's term as EU president, nothing much can be achieved in any case.
Even as the euro-zone economy grows at its fastest rate in five years, an influential research group warned that the region must seriously tackle a series of economic problems if it wanted to sustain faster growth and make its experiment of monetary union pay off.
President Bush has agreed to Chancellor Merkel's call for a new Middle East peace push and said he was sending Condoleezza Rice to the region shortly.
At this point, the top echelon of government, and much of the top leadership of the military, is a collection of one-man fan clubs. Leaders whose followers long ago knew better than to continue to follow them.
Throughout history, " wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.
An Israeli strike on Iran would pin the U.S. down in Iraq and resuscitate the neocons.
Our status in the world, as well as the security of these islands, depends chiefly on sea power. For the better part of 500 years, England and then Britain inflicted crushing defeats on larger, wealthier and more populous nations because it controlled the main. For much of that period, indeed, foreign vessels had to dip their colours when passing our ships, in acknowledgement of our sovereignty of the seas. That chapter is to be closed. How have we come to this pass?
[WAR: How? Because history is repeating itself! The former Kingdom of Israel lasted only 209 years - and it appears that the latter version will also exist for only 209 years. And 209 years since the ending of the 2,520-year punishment in 1797-1800 puts the time frame at 2006-2009.]
A WW2-era Air Force base in a bleak western U.S. desert could get some new, unlikely occupants. The island nation of Singapore wants to use the wide-open sky around Idaho's Mountain Home Air Force Base so its military pilots won't have to rely on flight simulators for training, or to compete as much for crowded air space at home.
EuroMoney Seminars, a UK-based company, is holding a seminar to teach state and local government officials in the U.S. how to lease a wide range of public assets – ranging from highways to water departments – to international and foreign private investment groups.
Almost all the neoconservatives have now departed the seats of power in the Bush administration and retreated to their sinecures at Washington think tanks, to plot the next war – on Iran.
The Senate and the House of Representatives reconvened in Washington Thursday under Democratic Party control, the first time that the Democrats have held the leadership of both houses of Congress in 12 years.
The differences between conservatism and liberalism flow from their competing worldviews.
For some time, the religious right has decried "secular humanism," a philosophy that rejects the supernatural or spiritual as a basis for moral decisionmaking. But now, nonbelievers are vigorously fighting back.
Clueless Catholic Contemplating Conspiracy...
I'd like to finally know what's up with "Bohemian Grove." That's a spot in California that so many tie to a "new world order."
A newfound comet is about to loop around the sun and might offer skywatchers a rare and fantastic view. But comets are unpredictable, and this one has a wide range of possible outcomes, experts say.
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