The annunciation, narrated at the beginning of the Gospel of St. Luke, is a humble human event, hidden - no one saw it, no one knew about it, but Mary - but at the same time decisive for the history of humanity. When the Virgin pronounced her "yes" to the angel's announcement, Jesus was conceived and with him the era of history began which would be ratified at Easter as the "new and eternal covenant." God was able to take on a human face. This is why the annunciation is also a Christological feast, because it celebrates a central mystery of Christ: his incarnation.
"Is it not a surprise that contemporary Europe, although it wishes to present itself as a community of values, seems more and more to contest the existence of universal and absolute values? Does not this unique form of 'apostasy' from itself, even prior to an apostasy from God, lead to doubts about its identity?"
Here is the message sent by the participants of the congress "Values and Perspectives for Tomorrow's Europe - 50 Years of the Treaty of Rome" to the political leaders of Europe.
European papers took a skeptical view of the EU's 50th anniversary celebrations on Sunday and the Berlin Declaration.
The EU celebrated its 50th birthday on Sunday, but critics said a much publicized statement marking the occasion papers over the cracks and the divisive differences over how to meet new challenges.
While they avoid the word "constitution" itself, the declaration says: "We are united in our aim of placing the European Union on a renewed common basis" by 2009. This is quick. Diplomats say to achieve the 2009 deadline there would have to be agreement at a big summit by next January at the latest. Given that the real work can't start until the French choose a new president at the beginning of May, this means the wrangling has to take place in just 8 months, or 7 if you take out the August break. The Poles have come straight out and said this is unrealistic.
The ink on the 'Berlin Declaration' signed on Sunday was barely dry when the rift between the supporters and opponents of an EU constitution re-opened. Chancellor Merkel warned that failure to reform its outdated institutions would be a "historic error."
Lord Carrington is the last surviving Tory grandee responsible for Britain's decision to join the EU but he is having difficulty summoning the enthusiasm to celebrate the organisation's 50th anniversary. "To be honest I feel rather agnostic about the whole thing."
Chancellor Merkel has said she will continue to apply her strategy of reviving the EU constitution by holding confidential talks with national officials, despite criticism that the strategy impedes democratic debate. Meanwhile, eurosceptic and pro-democracy groups are gearing up to fight any rapid resurrection of the EU constitution without citizens having a say in it. There was also one German professor who reminded Merkel that the EU constitution has not been fully ratified in Germany - despite Berlin's strong public backing for it.
Chancellor Merkel took center stage of European politics Sunday, putting Germany back in the lead of European integration on a day that two of the bloc's most controversial leaders probably attended their last EU summit meeting.
Tony Blair backed a fresh push by Europe's leaders yesterday to draw up a fast-track replacement for the failed EU constitution by Christmas. But German officials admitted that it needed a new name and less of the trappings of statehood.
The EU constitution was exhumed yesterday after Tony Blair agreed to speed along negotiations to seal a deal on a new treaty as early as this year. After a meeting of EU leaders in Berlin, the Prime Minister told journalists that he backed a quick timetable to negotiate a new European treaty.
Germany should sweep the EU constitution off its agenda.
Tony Blair is secretly backing plans to create a permanent President of Europe, in a move that could see him go head to head for the job with bitter rival Jacques Chirac.
What European politicians and statesmen, intellectuals and philosophers tried to exorcise with the most ardent fervor is precisely what they have immutably been so far: Manichaean!
Under Putin, Russia has sought to achieve three major goals in the region. The first is to demonstrate its renewed power and influence in an area where American influence is on the decline. The second is to increase trade with the nations of the region so as to buttress the Russian economy, especially its non-energy sectors. The third goal is to minimize Arab, Turkish and Iranian support for the Chechen rebellion against Russian control.
Arab foreign ministers agreed today that this week's Arab summit would revive an Arab initiative for peace with Israel without any amendments.
Former Israeli premier Ehud Barak ratcheted up his campaign to regain the helm of the leftist Labour party, the first step to challenging Prime Minister Olmert. Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party, remains the pollsters' favourite to win a national election if one were held now, reflecting a hawkish turn in public opinion since the war, and lack of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
EU leaders urged tougher sanctions against Sudan to stop the ongoing bloodshed in the Dafur region. The calls came amid worries that a fragile peace deal would to collapse, worsening the humanitarian crisis.
Today's meetings followed Tony Blair's warning last night that Iran has only a few days to find a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis over the 15 missing British sailors and Marines. "I have not been commenting up to now because I want to get it resolved in as easy and diplomatic a way as possible, because it is the welfare of the people that have been taken by the Iranian government that is most important. But this is a very serious situation."
(LT op/ed: Britain must leave Iran no doubt of its anger)
The unanimous March 24 vote by the UN Security Council to impose stricter sanctions on Iran is the latest step in the Bush administration's campaign to isolate the regime in Tehran and prepare the conditions for a possible military attack. The resolution came one day after Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval forces seized 15 British Navy personnel in the Persian Gulf, setting off a diplomatic confrontation between Iran and the UK.
President Ahmadinejad said that Iran's nuclear activities are quite legal and based on NPT, adding that the resolutions issued by the UN Security Council are illegal.
After so many years of unilateral sanctions, the United States finally got agreement form major powers to impose multilateral sanctions on Iran by taking the case to the UN Security Council. Although this strategy is a change from usual US unilateralism but it hasn't forced Iran to stop uranium enrichment.
The double standards and hypocrisy whereby Iran is being singled out as a threat to world peace and human rights is truly astounding and sickening to behold.
Yes!...
The timing of the recent incident in which 15 British sailors were arrested by Iran couldn't have been more provocative if it had been planned that way. And perhaps it was. The question is, however, who did the planning? Add it all up, and there seems little doubt as to who carried out what seems like a brazen provocation. The War Party's propaganda campaign has gone into high gear as a result of this incident, evoking memories of yet another "hostage crisis" and characterizing the incident as an Iranian provocation designed to set up a prisoner exchange. As long as domestic political support for an attack spans both parties and includes the key element of "liberal" Democrats, all systems are "go" for war with Iran.
Oil climbed toward $63 a barrel today, setting a fresh 2007 record, as tensions rose between major powers and Iran over the OPEC producer's disputed nuclear program.
This past week saw the dollar flail like the new kid in swimming class, accidentally in over his head. Ever since Henry Paulsen took office as Treasury Secretary, market manipulation now takes place with no regard to either common decency or legality. Why, even the mainstream media now talks openly about the rigging. When MSNBC's commentators dare to mention the Plunge Protection Team, as many have in recent weeks, the fix has become so institutionalized that, next, I would not be surprised to see it made into a cabinet post.
Could it be there's a whole aisle of the supermarket we could simply ignore - all those shampoos to leach the natural oils from our hair and all those conditioners to put them back again? And think, too, of the environmental gains: no more plastic bottles; no more chemicals on your skull and thence down the drain.
(London Times: Solution is staring you in the face)
=========================
