Benedict XVI encouraged representatives of European Christian movements to work toward safeguarding the "particular richness" of the continent - its faith.
As happiness itself depends on vital interaction between thought and feeling, good religion achieves a balance between these polarities. The conflict between them was on display when Pope Benedict XVI arrived last week in Brazil.
I come now to the main thing which our authors share. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian; he had no intention of founding a new religion; he understood himself to be sent only to the Jews and not to the pagans; "Jesus is much closer to the religious Jews of today than to Christian priests"; Christianity was "born only in the 2nd half of the 2nd century."
The merger with Chrysler was a pricey experiment for Daimler - to the tune of some $25.7 billion - and now the the German carmaker will have to fight for market leadership.
German press...
News that Daimler was getting rid of Chrysler drove Daimler share prices up briefly. And commentators in Germany agree: Daimler is much better off without its sick, American cousin.
Islamic terrorism poses the most serious threat "to the security and stability of Germany," the Interior Minister said as he presented the latest report by the nation's domestic intelligence service.
(UPI analysis: Terrorism top threat to Germany)
Unholy Brussels Empire...
German chancellor and Christian Democrat Angela Merkel has voiced regret there will be no reference to Christian roots in the revised EU treaty. "I would have liked the constitution to deliver such a reference. But as president of the European Council, I see there is not much of a chance."
The European Commission has issued a warning to states such as the UK and the Netherlands seeking to "roll back" what it sees as key parts of the EU constitution.
The German EU presidency is considering to let the UK keep its national veto on EU justice matters in a revised EU constitution, but the new British leadership has listed other red lines seen as unaccepable for Berlin.
Germany's foreign minister's trip to Moscow failed to produce any result on EU-Russia trade disputes but saw some friendly words, foreshadowing what is set to be an equally substance-free summit in Samara, Russia on Friday.
A series of bitter disputes between former Iron Curtain countries and Moscow was threatening last night to wreck an EU-Russia summit intended to modernise relations and improve regional security.
Diplomats from the West have embarked on a week of what Condoleezza Rice calls 'intensive diplomacy' to patch up frayed relations with Russia. The problems are wide-ranging, but an EU-Russia summit this Friday looks ready to fail because of bickering over oil, pigs and Soviet war memorials.
They hate Putin and love Bush. So it must have come as a surprise to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to hear from Russian opposition spokesmen that she should not pursue an aggressive pro-independence policy on Kosovo, lest it would reveal Washington's double standards in relation to the 4 unrecognized countries on the post-Soviet space.
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, regarded by many as head of the Russian imperial family, is arriving in Moscow today to attend the signing ceremony of a key unity pact between the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
President Bush has delayed for another 6 months moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, citing national security interests.
If there is one thing both sides of this divided city can agree it is that as Jerusalem looks back on its past, its future has never seemed more uncertain.
Germany is making its objections clear to the US military strategy for Afghanistan after an anti-terror operation killed civilians.
Pakistan, fractious, violent and unstable, is stumbling towards the nightmare scenario of a failed state. The collapse of state authority or the bloody overthrow of President Musharraf would be disastrous – for the region, for peace with India and for the global struggle against al-Qaeda. The mobs on the street are a threat to all the world.
Drought in provinces across northern China has left 4.8 million people and an equal number of livestock short of drinking water.
War whore...
John Bolton, who still has close links to the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph that the European Union had to "get more serious" about Iran and recognise that its diplomatic attempts to halt Iran's enrichment programme had failed.
Leave it to Dick Cheney to dash hopes for any cooler heads to prevail between Washington and Tehran. Remember, it was Cheney who did everything in his power to hype the Iraq War and scuttle any possibility of a diplomatic solution prior to that conflict. Now he's doing the same with Iran. Even as the State Department and the National Security Council are at least exploring the possibility of talking with Tehran, the Vice President, in typical fashion, is sabotaging that effort.
A group of Iranian lawmakers wants to create a "friendship committee" that would open contacts with the US Congress - an unprecedented attempt to build ties at a time when Iran's hard-line leadership also appears willing to talk with the country's #1 enemy.
Imperialism and militarism have thus begun to imperil both the financial and social well-being of our republic. Today it is the US that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world forces are gathering to stop us.
A federal program, Ronald Reagan used to say, is the closest thing to eternal life here on earth. Even the Gipper conceded he failed to get control of the federal behemoth.
Foreign Office officials worked to undermine Tony Blair's pro-American policies at the UN because they had been "infected" by French and German views, according to the former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.
Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded Jacques Chirac as French president today in a simple ceremony, where he promised to unite France and restore national pride. The office he inherits wields more powers than any other elected Western leader.
(IHT: Sarkozy inaugurated)
(IHT op/ed: The end of Gaullism?)
(IHT op/ed: Sarkozy's roots are worth remembering)
Water shortages facing Australia's drought-hit prime agricultural area might be worse than expected, the government was told on Wednesday, as river towns braced for unprecedented restrictions on water use.
When President Bush spoke to the nation soon after Hurricane Katrina, he was resolute that the city would be rebuilt. "We will do what it takes," he said. We - the federal, state and city governments; elected officials and the citizens who hire them - have failed spectacularly. National Geographic has reported that an engineer has found signs that levees were poorly rebuilt and are already eroding.
Paranoid Protestant Propagandist Passes...
The death of Jerry Falwell marks the disappearance from the scene of one of the leading figures in what became known as the American right of religious politics. His death deprives American conservatives of one of their most prominent but also most controversial figures.
Paul Wolfowitz issued a thinly-veiled threat to the members of the World Bank's governing board last night, warning that if they do not keep him as chief, they risk losing the confidence of the US, the bank's biggest donor.
In far off countries, about which we know little, deals are being struck that will bring exasperation and ever increasing degrees of desperation to the "Anglo-American Military Industrial Complex's" aspirations of controlling the world energy markets. In reality the war on 'terror' is about the control over substantial portions of the world's energy reserves for the next century. The purpose of controlling energy supplies was deemed essential and has been outlined by former US presidential advisors, and current top US administration staff.
The Turkish Embassy has confirmed that Bilderberg will meet May 31-June 3 in Istanbul but was unable to say precisely where.
=========================
