"The WAR on error"
Here is the Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI gave in St. Peter's Basilica on the World Day of Consecrated Life.
Benedict XVI believes a decisive key for the new evangelization is communion between bishops and ecclesial movements.
The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed. The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict."
Germany was the world's largest exporter for the 4th year running last year, but analysts saw first signs in data released Thursday of a looming slowdown. "German exports outstripped the US, ranked 2nd, and China, which likely will come in 3rd, though data isn't available yet."
From the beginning, it was clear that Angela Merkel's foreign policy would indeed differ from that of her predecessor. Merkel is a liberal - she deeply believes in the Western values of freedom, human rights and democracy. Merkel's room for manoeuvre has indeed been shown to be limited. She has to hold the coalition together, while also preventing the Ministerpräsidenten - the powerful leaders of the Länder or regions - from undermining her position.
In approving the deployment of Tornado jets to Afghanistan, but only for reconnaissance purposes, the German cabinet has revealed the full extent of Germany's schizophrenic Afghanistan policy. This double game has to stop. The chancellor should finally say it like it is: Germany is at war.
(DS Press: "Germans don't realize they are at war")
(DW Press: "A little bit pregnant" in Afghanistan)
(UPI analysis: Germany beefs up Afghan mission)
The leaders of Russia and Germany are being joined by new US Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the annual Munich security conference this weekend — and the prestigious gathering has gained extra spice from a last-minute announcement that Iran's top nuclear negotiator will attend. Besides President Putin and Chancellor Merkel, more than 40 foreign and defense ministers were arriving today for the event, where the main theme this year is "global crises and global responsibilities."
European Commission chief Jose Barroso yesterday urged the Netherlands to start "moving" towards a compromise on the EU constitution.
Chancellor Angela Merkel recently told the press about her determination to "find the soul of Europe" and to relaunch the project of a European constitution. Failing to do that, she said, would be "a historic failure." Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his Luxembourg counterpart Jean-Claude Juncker expressed the same concept during a press conference this week.
When it comes to writing down the law, the undisputed kings were Montesquieu and Napoleon. That is the conclusion of a campaign to establish French as the benchmark legal language of the EU. Whenever Europeans get together in the expanding Tower of Babel that is Brussels, English is the most likely language to be heard. But when it comes to resolving misunderstandings and mistranslations, French is the most precise, authoritative and rigorous of European languages, the Francophiles argue.
At a meeting with Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, Ukraine's President Yushchenko said his country was conscious of its responsibility to be a reliable energy partner for Europe.
Russia's defense minister said granting independence to the Serbian province of Kosovo may set a dangerous precedent, triggering disintegration of other states across Eurasia. "This may spark a chain reaction and open up Pandora's box. If hypothetically we suppose Kosovo is given independence, people in other unrecognized regions will wonder, 'So why not us as well?'"
President Putin has expressed concern over Washington's military adventures in the region, in particular the Persian Gulf, and called on the US to set a timetable for the quicker pullout of American troops from Iraq, and cede the control of the country to the Iraqis themselves.
From one of their own...
A Jewish academic has shocked Italy by claiming Jews murdered Christians for their blood in the Middle Ages so it could be used in rituals. The details were revealed in an Italian newspaper which published extracts of the book, Easter of Blood by Professor Ariel Toaff. The claims were denied by leading Jewish figures including his father Elio, once the chief Rabbi of Rome. In the book, Prof Toaff alleges the ritual killing was carried out by members of a fundamentalist group in reaction to the persecution of Jews. He says the acts took place in around the city of Trento in modern northern Italy, between the 11th and 14th centuries.
Prime Minister Olmert has spurned a call by his defense minister to consider halting excavations near Jerusalem's most sacred Islamic shrine that have angered Muslims.
Violence has broken out at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque after Israeli police moved in to break up crowds of stone-throwing Palestinian protesters. Hundreds of police poured into the disputed holy site in the Old City, firing rubber bullets and tear gas. There are reports that a number of Palestinians protesters have barricaded themselves inside the mosque.
China check-mating US (part 2)
It is the view of all enlightened political analysts that it is China's insatiable appetite for energy and natural resources, and its desire to secure the sea lanes through which such resources are transported, which constitute the propelling reason behind this great power's outreach to the tiny Republic of Seychelles.
Don't think so...
"We believe that no one will make such an unwise and wrong move (to attack Iran) that would endanger their country and interests. Some say that the US president is not the type who acts based on calculations or thinks about the consequences of his action. But even these people can be brought to their senses."
Iran's UN Ambassador:
Rather than face the unpleasant facts in Iraq, the US administration is trying to sell an escalated version of the same failed policy. It does this by trying to make Iran its scapegoat and fabricating evidence of Iranian activities in Iraq.
Iran's man at the UN since 2002 spoke with Washington think tankers and pundits for two hours. It was a virtuoso diplomatic performance, albeit off the record, which won him sustained applause from his American interlocutors.
If an attack on Iran is among "options ... on the table," who put it there? Who gave President Bush the authority to attack Iran? And when was it granted? Or is this Congress, too, terrified of crossing the War Party?
Thelma & Louise imperialism:
Let me make an argument about Bush administration Iran policy based on no insider knowledge, just the logic of George and Dick's Thelma-and-Louise-style imperialism.
In Chalmers Johnson's unrelentingly grim view, today's dire global conditions are largely the fault of an arrogant, increasingly militarized US bent on expanding its global empire. The whole country is headed toward a possible military coup or, more probable in Johnson's view, bankruptcy.
Just look at the crew the Dems have assembled for this year! What a mess of hucksters, victim-group politicos, and anti-capitalistic wackos. Maybe they would be tamed in office, but they sure are a scary crew otherwise. It can be depressing, to be sure, but let us remember that the root of the problem is not the individuals in question but the ideology that underlies the raison d'être of the modern Democratic Party, at least at the national level. Let us remember that the core problem, in the end, is ideological and not personal. Uproot the underlying anti-liberal assumptions of the Democrats, make them Jeffersonian once again, and you would have a viable party.
The European Central Bank warned it could lift interest rates even after an expected increase in March if European labor unions won wage increases that amplified the risks for higher inflation.
Germany wants increased international supervision of hedge funds and has placed the issue high on the agenda of this weekend's G7 meeting. The US is skeptical. Guess who will win.
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