The Vatican secretary of state celebrated Mass for members of the lower house of the Italian Parliament and told them that faith "can never be reduced to a private matter." The Vatican official prayed during the Mass of preparation for Easter so that the politicians who filled the small church would be able to give "testimony in the world." "Our presence in the world, including those who have the task of political representation, can never be reduced to a private matter, since that in which we believe should not be hidden, but shared."
For more than 900 years, Catholics and Orthodox have been separated. Are there signs that the two great traditions could draw closer together?
Faced with calls for his resignation, Foreign Minister Steinmeier sat through a grilling from a German parliamentary inquiry probing the case of former Guantanamo inmate Murat Kurnaz.
A descendant of the last German Kaiser has fled from his home country to France after a series of romances left him penniless. Prince Ferfried von Hohenzollern, 64, who has relatives in royal families across Europe, is taking financial shelter in Strasbourg.
48% of Germans think the US is more dangerous than Iran, a new survey shows, with only 31% believing the opposite. Germans' fundamental hypocrisy about the US suggests that it's high time for a new bout of re-education.
The Berlin Declaration is of interest not only because of its denial of reality on the part of the European ruling elite, but also because it documents a growing tendency towards nationalism in Europe, which lay behind the pompous display of unity last weekend. The reality is that after weeks of negotiation the 27 governments of the EU were unable to agree on anything other than a few utterly general and non-committal phrases.
The rest of the world will not wait for Europe while it bickers over institutional reform and external policy issues, says Joschka Fischer, ex-German foreign minister, warning that the risk of it becoming a "playground" for upcoming super powers grows by the day. "The alternative will be that a re-nationalisation [of powers] will weaken Europe and we will be the playing ground for superpowers in the 21st century - this means goodnight Europe."
A week has passed now since the Berlin Declaration was published marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Already it shows signs of being forgotten. I feel deeply disappointed by the flawed and preposterous document that is this so-called Berlin Declaration.
The EU birthday party was further proof, were any needed, that no transnational institution can elicit the love and loyalty of a country. World Government is a vision of elites no patriot will ever embrace. The 50th anniversary of the EU brought to the fore as many questions as telegrams of congratulations. Quo vadis? Where is Europe going? Other than commerce, what is the EU all about? Why is Europe so strategically impotent? What happened to the continent that was the cockpit of history? Pope Benedict XVI called the failure to credit Christianity an act of "apostasy." The Christophobic French elite got their way again. The EU is a thing of paper, an intellectual construct. Unlike a nation, it has no heart and no soul.
A planned vote in the US Congress that would classify the widespread killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Army as a genocide is threatening to make relations with Turkey unusually tense.
Israeli officials today refused to accept the revived Arab peace initiative as it currently stands, saying negotiations were needed.
Just when the US is attempting to support the moderate Arab countries and form a united coalition against Iran and Syria, it appears that Riyadh is turning its back on Washington. Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland revealed this week that Saudi King Abdullah cancelled a mid-April White House gala without providing a convincing explanation.
German press...
Iran's intransigence over the 15 kidnapped British sailors has forced London to go on the offensive. Tony Blair has now called on the international community for its support. German commentators praise the British reserve in dealing with the crisis.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected as unacceptable the meddling of irrelevant European officials in the case of arrest of some British sailors. He stressed that interferences by irrelevant parties would not help solve the problem, and added: It is better for the European officials to notice the documented facts instead of making the situation more complex.
The British government is using 'fake maritime boundaries' in its claim that Iran's arrest of its servicemen was allegedly in Iraqi territorial waters, according to former head of Foreign Office's maritime section. "The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government. This published boundary is a fake with no legal force."
Sharp words uttered in Britain have upped the ante in this crisis while allowing a unity of purpose to grow among Iranian leaders. "They have created a lot of noise over diplomatic ties and raised the issue with the UN. This will not help solve the issue. British leaders are miscalculating the case."
The confrontation between Iran and Britain became increasingly grave last night with the crisis moving to the UN and the appearance of a new letter from the hostage Faye Turney criticising the British presence in Iraq.
(LX: Political cartoon)
The most extensive study of the effects of nuclear detonations in 4 major US cities paints a grim picture of millions of deaths, overwhelmed hospitals and loss of command-and-control capability by government.
Labour MSPs will wake up this morning to the worst of news, namely that their nightmares are true and that they really are heading for disaster.
Australia faces extreme weather, including fires, floods and drought and temperatures could rise dramatically, a new report has warned.
Crude oil prices surged above $66 a barrel Thursday, driven to a new 6-month high by concerns that strained relations between Iran and the West could put oil exports in jeopardy as US gasoline supplies wane and demand swells.
The World Trade Organization chief said that a breakthrough in troubled global free-trade talks was still possible, but he warned of growing risks of failure. After nearly 6 years of negotiations seeking an agreement, chances of a deal before a summer deadline are fading, trade analysts warn.
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1% of Americans - those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 - receiving their largest share of national income since 1928. The top 10%, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression. While total reported income in the US increased almost 9% percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90% dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6%.
Sharing a meal, sometimes sitting face to face with strangers, is a curious act that sets humans apart from all other animals on the planet. So strange is this behaviour, yet so important to the development of society and communication, that plenty of scientists and philosophers have tried to decode the origins and history of the human meal.
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