"The WAR on error"
Pope Benedict XVI is reportedly expected to convene a Vatican meeting soon to discuss the Roman Catholic church's strategy in China. The meeting is to focus on China's strained relations with the Holy See after Beijing consecrated several bishops last year without papal approval, a move seen as "unlawful" by Pope Benedict.
At the heart of the whole ecumenical movement is spiritual ecumenism, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In A Handbook of Spiritual Ecumenism, Cardinal Walter Kasper presents guidelines grounded in documents from the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II's "Ut Unum Sint" and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Spiritual ecumenism is the "soul of the whole ecumenical movement," Cardinal Kasper explains.
Edmund Stoiber has survived a challenge from within his Christian Social Union party, senior aides said today. Most of the 124 CSU members of the Bavarian state parliament had met in private late into last night at a resort in the Alps to hear complaints that Stoiber's low popularity ratings were an ill omen for state elections next year. But the session concluded without any resolution against Stoiber. Outside, Stoiber declared he had won the 'absolute support' of the state caucus.
Edmund Stoiber won some respite in his fight for political survival yesterday, as his Christian Social Union put off a decision over who will lead the party into next year's state election.
The political drama could damage Ms Merkel if support for the CSU, already hit by the crisis, continues to fall. While operating only in Bavaria, its free market economic policies and strong social agenda, plus its appeal to rightwing voters, have influenced CDU-led governments and drawn support away from far-right parties.
Between Moscow's three-day interruption of oil shipments and EU plans for a transformed energy market, Germany's government is forced to act. The country is set on moving away from nuclear power. But is that realistic? Just how strongly the coalition partners' views diverge became clear from the reactions to Russia's interruption of oil shipments. Edmund Stoiber said Germany has to rethink its plan to phase out nuclear energy.
The Federalist Society, a bridgehead of the American neo-cons, plans establishing a branch in Germany.
Coincidence, or a Federalist-Scientologist link?...
The opening by the Scientology movement of an office in Berlin triggered debate on whether to monitor the group as a possibly subversive organization.
The global spread of English may be alarming the French but the Germans aren't worried. German words are in common use in many languages around the world, says the German Language Council which has proudly published a list of exports ranging from Angst to Zeitgeist.
Hindus across Europe are joining forces to stop a German-led move to put an EU-wide ban on the Swastika – a 5,000 year-old religious Hindu sign.
The Unholy Brussels Empire...
The new president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering has promised to act as a "fair and objective" president of the whole assembly, indicating that despite his personal convictions, he would no longer press for a reference to God in any revised EU constitution.
Chancellor Merkel has warned Europe it faces an "historic failure" if it does not revive the deadlocked European constitution.
In a speech to the EU parliament in Strasbourg, Angela Merkel spelled out her goals for Germany's presidency. She stressed the need for progress on an EU constitution but also the fight against religious extremism.
Hans-Gert Pöttering was elected president of the European Parliament yesterday, putting a German social conservative deeply skeptical of Turkey's EU candidacy at the helm of the increasingly influential legislature.
The election of a conservative politician to be head of the European Parliament means that the 3 main institutions of the EU are now in the hands of the centre-right. Another point of interest in the coming months will be the so-called "German axis" with the president of the parliament, the head of the socialists and the EU presidency, all being German.
Now that oil is flowing again, Russia wants to find routes to Europe that avoid the disputed Druzhba pipeline through Belarus. Shipping oil across the Baltic is one option under consideration.
Russian authorities have ordered security forces on high alert after receiving information from foreign officials pointing to the threat of a terrorist attack on public transportation, officials said. Authorities were checking information about the potential threat, they said.
It was the ancient version of a last stand: 12 clay bullets lined up and ready to be shot from slings in a desperate attempt to stop fierce invaders who soon would reduce much of the city to rubble. The discovery was made in the ruins of Hamoukar, an ancient settlement in northeastern Syria located just miles from the border with Iraq.
Senior American government officials received regular reports of the secret meetings that took place in Europe between a former Israeli official and a Syrian representative. Senior officials in Washington told Haaretz that Vice President Cheney was kept in the picture about these indirect talks between Syria and Israel.
Israeli and Syrian representatives have drawn up a secret blueprint that would overcome one of the main stumbling blocks to Middle East peace. Under the plan, Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights, which would revert to Syria. But Israelis would be allowed free access to the most hotly contested area on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which would become a conservation and tourist park.
Saudi Arabia believes the Iraqi government is not up to the challenge and has told the United States that it is prepared to move its own forces into Iraq should the violence there degenerate into chaos.
An MP urged the foreign ministry to file a legal case in an international court against the US raid on the Iranian consulate in Iraq. "No one has the right to arrest and detain members of the diplomatic corps who enjoy diplomatic immunity in accordance with international law."
Not smelling the coffee...
President Ahmadinejad said neither Israel, nor the United States, would dare attack the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program."They well know the power of the Iranian people. I don't think they would ever dare to attack us, neither them nor their masters. They won't do such a stupid thing."
Retired general Wesley Clark drew harsh criticism this week after reportedly saying that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran.
Russia has delivered new anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran and will consider further requests by Tehran for defensive weapons, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. The Russian military insists that the missile systems will protect Iran from air attacks, but do not pose a threat to neighboring countries.
Russian admiral:
US Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate that the Pentagon’s military plans include not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf but also strikes against Iranian targets, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet has told the Interfax news agency. “The presence of US nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf region means that the Pentagon has not abandoned plans for surprise strikes against nuclear targets in Iran. With this aim a group of multi-purpose submarines ready to accomplish the task is located in the area."
Uh-oh...
Iranian troops have shot down a U.S. pilotless spy plane recently, an Iranian lawmaker announced yesterday as the Islamic Republic was facing increasing military pressure from its arch rival - the United States. The aircraft was brought down when it was trying to cross the borders "during the last few days," a member of the parliament was quoted by the local Fars News Agency as saying.
Anticipating President Bush's psychotic babbling to the nation on Jan. 10, Congressional Democrats decided to throw down the gauntlet to the Bush Administration, showing clearly that they are prepared to wield the independent power of the Legislative branch to stop the mad rush to war.
In a speech to at the National Press Club, Sen. Edward Kennedy announced that he was introducing a bill requiring the Congress to vote before the President escalates troops levels in Iraq, and to reassert Congressional authority over the Iraq War, as required by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
It's the trial of the year in the US. Former Bush administration official I. Lewis Libby is a facing charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the case of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The spotlight is on Bush's pre-Iraq War propaganda.
To most of us he seemed like a doofus. But, the small pathologies of Bush the candidate have, thanks to the purposes of the neocons and the religious right, been enhanced and upgraded. We have a bona fide madman now, who thinks of himself in a grandiose way as single-handedly turning the tide of history.
A marriage that has lasted for almost 300 years must have something going for it. The evidence, however, is that there is increasing momentum for a trial separation, even divorce, in England as well as Scotland. Yesterday was the anniversary of the original Scottish Parliament voting itself out of existence. Scotland might well be worse off in the short term, but the claim that the country is “too small” to survive on its own is incredible when a map of Europe today is more fragmented than at any moment since the Holy Roman Empire.
The almighty dollar is not nearly as mighty as it was. There are some ominous trends under way that threaten that lonely eminence of economic, technological, political and cultural leadership that the United States has enjoyed in the last 15 years. "Enjoyed" might not be the happiest word to describe the American experience in that brief decade and a half. But Americans might not much enjoy the world that is evidently coming, of a rough economic and technological parity with China and Europe, a world in which the almighty dollar no longer rules.
A new archaeological find in Romania provides evidence that modern humans may have interbred with Neanderthals thousands of years ago.
The guy who is cursed with bad breath seems unlikely to make a career or form a happy relationship. We should bear in mind that bad breath is a problem that can be tackled once and for all. More importantly, it is possible to find exact causes of the condition.
Why, in the name of health, do so many foods marketed to the US public include high fructose corn syrup? Even the most cursory search of the many health sites on the Internet yield a veritable cornucopia of negative information about this stuff. Of course the culprit for the presence of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in all sweetened foods in the US is the state.
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