Benedict XVI announced the publication of a compendium, "as a means of helping the Christian people to believe, celebrate and live ever more fully the mystery of the Eucharist." The announcement is found in the postsynodal apostolic exhortation, "Sacramentum Caritatis" (Sacrament of Charity), presented in the Vatican. "It is my hope that this book will help make the memorial of the Passover of the Lord increasingly the source and summit of the Church's life and mission. This will encourage each member of the faithful to make his or her life a true act of spiritual worship."
(Zenit: Press conference and highlights)
(EWTN: Press conference and highlights)
(Zenit: "Sacramentum Caritatis" in full)
Pope Benedict XVI strongly reasserted the church's opposition to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, saying that Catholic politicians were "especially" obligated to defend the church's stance in their public duties. The document's timing resonated politically in Europe, where an increasing number of countries permit forms of both euthanasia and same-sex marriage.
The first visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Benedict XVI showed signs of warmer ties between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. The Vatican press office said that today's meeting, which took place in "a very positive atmosphere," demonstrated the cordial relations that exist between the Holy See and Russia, "as well as the mutual will to continue on this path."
German scientists have announced plans to send a lunar probe to orbit the moon. The project's success could be one small step for man and one giant leap for Germany's space ambitions. But should Germany go it alone?
Paranoid Protestants...
American Christians are up in arms about a home schooling family in Germany whose daughter has been placed in a psychiatric institution. The authorities claim the girl was removed from her family for her own welfare.
Chancellor Merkel, sharpening her government's opposition to Poland's decision to accept part of a US missile shield on its territory, said Tuesday that the issue should be submitted to NATO and not decided on a bilateral basis with Washington. Immediately countering Merkel's call for the debate to move to Brussels, a NATO spokesman said the alliance would not interfere in negotiations between the US and Poland or the Czech Republic, which has also agreed to deploy parts of the shield.
German press on...
President Chirac had guts and a knack for symbolic gestures. But he is leaving office under the shadow of France's rejection of the EU constitution, say German media commentators. Whoever succeeds him after next month's election will have the tough task of pushing France back to the heart of Europe.
The European Parliament has called on the European Commission to push EU companies to show more social and environmental responsibility wherever they operate in the world.
The EU could unravel within 20 years unless it reforms its institutions to streamline decision-making, according to Jacques Delors, the former European Commission president. "From a purely pragmatic point of view, our system of preparing decisions is not fit for purpose, neither for the fact that we are now 27 countries nor for the reality of the world."
Foreign observers of Israel tend to focus so intently on the dangers the country faces from its Arab neighbours that they have largely missed an astonishing story that has been accelerating over the past few months: that of the Jewish state's possible move toward internal collapse. If you consider this an exaggeration, just take note of what the past couple of weeks have brought about.
Israel's supposedly "defensive" assault on Hezbollah last summer was cast in a definitively different light last week by Prime Minister Olmert. His leaked testimony to the Winograd Committee – investigating the government's failures during the month-long attack – suggests that he had been preparing for such a war at least 4 months before the official casus belli.
While the US firmly opposes any cross-border military action by Turkey, Turkey asserts its right 'under international law' to act against the PKK as required by its military.
The US has indicated for the first time that it might be willing to back plans by elite echelons of the military in Islamabad to oust Pervez Musharraf from power.
For months Russia has prevented harsher sanctions against Iran. But now it is refusing to deliver fuel to an Iranian nuclear plant - ostensibly because of late payments. Is Moscow coming around to a tougher stance against Tehran?
Japan's Foreign Minister said that no country can deprive Iran of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. "Undoubtedly, Iran is one of the countries severely urging the need to strengthen the statute of NPT and considering it is to the benefit of the world peace and stability. Issuing resolutions is not the way to solve Iran's nuclear issue and such hostile measures just aggravate the situation and will not be beneficial to any party."
Iran's president voiced defiance as world powers prepared to put the finishing touches to new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying his country would not surrender. His tough language was echoed by another senior official, who said mastering the nuclear fuel cycle was a "red line" from which Iran would never retreat.
Cant' handle the truth...
The Israel and US delegations walked out of the United Nations' disarmament forum in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday after Iran said Israel was the "real source of nuclear danger in the Middle East" and had a "dark record of crimes." Iran's Foreign Minister told the Conference on Disarmament that Israel's nuclear weapons posed a "uniquely grave threat to regional and international peace and security" requiring action by the international community.
Very little of the detail appearing in the media about the recent unexplained disappearance of a top Iranian general, Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, including his age, can be taken at face value. But all the accounts point to the involvement of the US, Israeli and/or other Western intelligence agencies in the defection or abduction of Asgari, a former deputy defence minister, who is currently being interrogated or tortured to obtain Iranian defence secrets.
More than a month after a former top official in Iran's Defense Ministry went missing, Germany stirred up the mystery of his disappearance and possible collusion with the West.
Can the US and British governments really be at it again? Can they really expect the public to believe a mirror image of their barrage of lies on Iraq, now applying to Iran? It's about oil and the dollar stupid. Remember the Wall Street Crash. And don't ever forget yesterday's lies.
A Journalist Writing Bloody Murder…And No One Notices. As far as I can tell, no one in the mainstream even blinked on the Iran-Contra angle or the possibility that a vast, secret Middle Eastern operation is being run, possibly illegally and based on stolen funds and Saudi money, out of the Vice President's office.
This settles at least 3 matters once and for all: 1) The president has been given the green light to attack Iran. 2) The Democrats are either being dishonest or they lack fundamental knowledge of geography, because Pelosi is attacking the president for his Iraq "surge" even as she gives him the go-ahead for a super-surge right across the border in Iran. 3) One has to wonder how those who claim that recognizing the Israel Lobby's decisive impact on US foreign policy is a hate crime are going to explain away this one.
It's cool, classy, cosmopolitan — and it should secede from the UK. The London Times Business Editor on why London is the new capital of the world.
Yesterday...
US share markets fell sharply on Tuesday amid fears that the collapse of the biggest independent sub-prime mortgage lender and problems in the mortgage industry and housing market could spread through the banking and financial system.
Today...
European stocks have joined a global sell-off, after concerns about the US economy and mortgage industry hurt markets in Asia and dented Wall Street. "This will cause a domino effect on the world economy. There could be more bloodbath to come."
(IHT: Asian stocks plunge)
Wall Street has a new villain. The market has been riding a volatile wave of whiplash in recent weeks and the daily blame game has been ending with the proverbial finger pointed at subprime mortgages. But what exactly are "subprimes," what have they done wrong, and why does Wall Street care so much?
A 4-year run-up in the euro against the dollar, and a more recent rise in the euro against the yen, has been cutting into the bottom lines of Europe's blue-chip companies. For big players like Airbus, whose costs are priced in euros while their products are priced internationally in dollars, the euro's strength can spell trouble if not adequately managed.
The battle of Thermopylae was real, but how real is 300? Ephraim Lytle, assistant professor of hellenistic history at the University of Toronto, has seen the movie and offers his view.
Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees were to disappear, man would follow only a few years later. That hypothesis could soon be put to the test, as a mysterious condition that has wiped half of the honey bee population the US over the last 35 years appears to be repeating itself in Europe. Experts are at a loss to explain the fall in honey bee populations in America.
Now in Spain, hundreds of thousands of colonies have been lost and beekeepers in northern Croatia estimated that 5 million bees had died in just 48 hours this week. The depopulation of bees could have a huge impact on the environment, which is reliant on the insects for pollination. If taken to the extreme, crops, fodder - and therefore livestock - could die off if there are no pollinating insects left.
German bee expert Professor Tautz from Wurzburg University said: "Bees are vital to bio diversity. There are 130,000 plants for example for which bees are essential to pollination, from melons to pumpkins, raspberries and all kind of fruit trees - as well as animal fodder - like clover. Bees are more important than poultry in terms of human nutrition. Bees from one hive can visit a million flowers within a 400 square kilometre area in just one day. It is not a sudden problem, I has been happening for a few years now. Five years ago in Germany there were a million hives, now there are less than 800,000. If that continues there will eventually be no bees."
[WAR: "In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes." (Isa 7:18,19)]
=========================
