A man has tried to jump into Benedict XVI's popemobile during his weekly general audience held in St Peter's Square at the Vatican. The man was wrestled to the ground by security officers. The Pope was not injured and did not appear to notice the incident. He proceeded with the audience as normal.
True history!...
For decades now the figure of Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, has been at the center of some volatile polemics. The Roman Pontiff who guided the Church through the terrible years of the Second World War and the Cold War is the victim of a "black legend," which has proved difficult to combat even though the documents and testimonies have amply shown its complete inconsistency. One of the unpleasant "secondary" consequences, so to speak, of this black legend - that falsely portrays Pope Pacelli as indulgent toward Nazism and indifferent to the fate of the victims of persecution - has been to sideline the extraordinary teaching of this Pope who was a precursor of Vatican II.
There is little similarity between the extremist concept of jihad as a holy war and the Christian Crusades, says a historian of the Middle Ages. Marco Meschini, a professor at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, explains in his new book "Il Jihad e La Crociata" (The Jihad and the Crusade), says that jihad and the Crusades are asymmetric. In this interview with Zenit, he explains why.
A court in Rome is expected to deliver its verdict today in the trial of five people accused of conspiring to murder Roberto Calvi - known as "God's banker" - in London 25 years ago.
Baal energy...
Some Holy See buildings will start using solar energy, reflecting Pope Benedict XVI's concern about conserving the Earth's resources, a Vatican engineer said.
The EU lifted the threat of sanctions against Germany, saying that after 4 years of excess budget deficits Europe's largest economy had been brought in line with the financial rules that underpin the stability of the euro.
[WAR: Germany "runs" the EU, as the COG "prophets" say? Puh-leaze!! Germany is legally bound and subjected to Brussels. This is why the EU must collapse - to free-up Germany so that it can fulfill its prophetic destiny.]
President Sarkozy set the stage for a prickly and confrontational relationship with Gordon Brown when he urged the Prime Minister-in-waiting to be more positive about the EU. Taking up where his predecessor Jacques Chirac left off, Sarkozy made clear he too regards Britain as France's junior partner on the European stage.
NOT-SO-GREAT G-8
Pope Benedict today appealed to leaders of the world's richest nations to stick to their promises to boost aid to the planet's poorest countries, particularly those in Africa. The Pope also called for greater recognition of the role played by the Catholic Church and other religious organisations in providing educational opportunities in developing countries where "state structures often fail to reach".
More than 300 Caritas Internationalis members sent a message to the Group of Eight leaders, in the form of a banner raised in St. Peter's Square. Some 25 bishops and archbishops, 50 priests and nuns, and 300 Caritas delegates gathered today in the Vatican to erect the banner that said "Make Aid Work."
President Bush has set the scene for a showdown with Russia's Putin at the G8 summit in Germany today, with a speech in Prague yesterday saying Moscow has "derailed" democracy and reviling the repression of the old Soviet Union.
President Bush and Chancellor Merkel are competing for control of the climate change agenda at the G-8 summit. The minutes of a secret meeting to plan the German government's strategy, obtained by Der Spiegel, reveal the hard line Merkel plans to take.
Washington says it will not agree to climate change targets ahead of a G8 summit in Germany already marred by a row over US missile defence plans. Rejecting proposals to slash emissions, a top US climate official said the G8 should not dictate members' policies.
The Group of 8 summit of industrialized nations, due to begin today in the German holiday resort of Heiligendamm, is dominated by extreme tensions, expressed both openly and indirectly. There has been no comparable summit in terms of the conflicts between the major powers since the launching of the annual meeting of world leaders 32 years ago. The growing tensions between the major powers recall the initial years of the previous century, when the struggle for the re-division of the world between the imperialist powers, after the suppression of colonial rebellions like the Chinese Boxer uprising and proxy wars like the Balkan wars of 1912-13, erupted in the slaughter of WW1.
Russian scientists of politics share their opinions with Pravda regarding the agenda of the G8 summit in Germany and the possible pressure on Russia.
While leaders of rich nations gather for the G8 powwow in northeast Germany, a few miles away anti-G8 campaigners are staging their own parallel meeting - an alternate G8 summit.
History is full of "what ifs," and historians should not indulge in such speculation. But journalists may. What if Israel hadn't taken East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the Six-Day War?
The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling on President Bush to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, this on the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, says that Palestinians are on the brink of civil war and that their internal battles are as dangerous to their welfare as the Israeli occupation, if not more so.
The Turkish army is conducting the largest military operation against Kurdish separatists in the south-east of the country in the past few years, local media reported today. According to the Turkish Cihan news agency, the operation, involving about 50,000 troops, armored vehicles and combat aircraft, is targeting Kurdish militants in 11 provinces in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
If you believe anybody's figures, 200,000 people have been killed in the Sudan. Four million have died in the Congo. Yet Washington and Hollywood are fixated on the Sudan and silent about the Congo. Why? Well, keep in mind that the US always practices selective outrage. US foreign policy is institutionalized hypocrisy. Another point to keep in mind is that US foreign policy is largely driven by domestic lobbies and domestic politics.
Oman evacuated tens of thousands today and closed the major port of Sohar northwest of the capital Muscat, as a weakening Cyclone Gonu roared toward the Strait of Hormuz — the world's major transport artery for Persian Gulf oil.
In a surprise meeting in Berlin, Germany's foreign minister met privately with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator. But western hopes for progress were met with intransigence by Iran.
Iran said it would welcome an active and innovative role by different states in its peaceful nuclear case. "We will be glad to see different countries play an innovative and active role in Iran's nuclear case. We welcome any state intending to play a role in this respect."
President Ahmadinejad said that the US allegation on Iran's interference in internal affairs of Iraq is the most laughable mockery of the past several years.
While Iranian mortar rounds and other weapons have been found on Afghan battlefields there is no evidence that Tehran is supplying weapons to the Taliban, the US general who leads the NATO war effort in the country said. "I just have no information to support that there's anything formal in some arrangement out of Iran to provide weapons here."
Following revelations of a Bush administration policy to hold Iran responsible for any al-Qaeda attack on the US that could be portrayed as planned on Iranian soil, Zbigniew Brzezinski warned last week that Washington might use such an incident as a pretext to bomb Iran.
The neocons have changed US war doctrine, which now permits the US to preemptively strike with nuclear weapons a non-nuclear power. They have convinced themselves that nuking Iran will show the Muslim world that Muslims have no alternative to submitting to the will of the US government. If Cheney again prevails, America will supplant the Third Reich as the most reviled country in recorded history.
[WAR: Again, this is why Germany will feel compelled to move against us - to save the world, and us from ourselves. The WW2 roles will be reversed.)
These Ten Neo-Commandments are well suited to accommodate the neo-conservative quest for a "new world order." And the neat thing is that these commandments will probably pass "constitutional muster" for posting in public buildings, yea, even in US courthouses and schoolrooms. The old commandments were thrown out for violating "the separation of church and state." This neo-Decalogue bears no such burden.
It's finally undeniable. America's very existence as a free nation is threatened by a full-scale illegal invasion from the south. The nation's transformation from what once was a unified Judeo-Christian culture into an angry cauldron of squabbling groups and nationalities grows daily.
When it comes to this border issue, this national security concern of illegal immigration, Bush is a political fanatic – an extremist who will never back down or see the light. There's more to this than meets the eye. When Bush gets this mean toward his political opponents, there's got to be more at stake.
The European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates to 4% from 3.75% following its latest meeting. An increase would take the cost of borrowing in the eurozone to its highest level for 6 years and mean that it has doubled in 18 months.
The real reason for the tension...
Trading in the Russian Export Blend Crude Oil (REBCO) futures will move from the New York Mercantile Exchange to a new commodity market in St. Petersburg, a deputy economics minister said. He also said an oil exchange in Russia could be launched on August 1.
The Bush administration is "boss" writ large. It intends ruling the world by force, saying so in its National Security Strategy (NSS) in 2002, then updated in even stronger terms in 2006. It plainly states our newly claimed sovereign right allowed no other country - the right to wage preventive wars against perceived threats or any nations daring to challenge our status as lord and master of the universe. Key to the strategy is controlling the world's energy reserves starting with the Middle East and Central Asia's vast amount outside Russia and China with enough military strength to control their own, at least for now. These resources give us veto power over which nations will or won't get them and assures Big Oil gets the lion's share of the profits.
With the world's energy supplies finite, the US heavily dependent on imports, and "peak oil" near or approaching, "security" for America means assuring a sustainable supply of what we can't do without. It includes waging wars to get it, protect it, and defend the maritime trade routes over which it travels. That means energy's partnered with predatory New World Order globalization, militarism, wars, ecological recklessness, and now an extremist US administration willing to risk Armageddon for world dominance. Central to its plan is first controlling essential resources everywhere, at any cost, starting with oil and where most of it is located in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Number of mainstream US news outlets that reported on Paris Hilton over the past week: 10,000+. Number of mainstream US news outlets that reported on a meeting of nearly 200 of the world's most powerful people this past weekend: Less than a handful. The Dallas Morning News carried a single article about Texas Governor Perry's visit. Apart from that, save a mention in an online Village Voice blog - nothing, absolutely nothing about a confab of the most powerful and influential people on the planet. In comparison, G8 is a mere talking shop and yet it is lavished with attention while Bilderberg is hidden in the shadows. Nothing in the New York Times and nothing in the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, both of which were represented at the meeting. Nothing in Le Figaro of France or the Financial Times of London, who also were both represented by chief editors.
Sex or Snickers?...
More than half of British women prefer chocolate to sex, saying it can be depended on to give pleasure, according to a survey. But British men overwhelmingly think sex is sweeter, with 87% preferring carnal pleasures to a bar of confectionery. Fifty-two percent of women would rather curl up with a bar of chocolate. "As it melts in the mouth at body temperature, chocolate's creamy texture and unique aroma hit all of the body's senses, heightening the sensuality of the experience."
There are strong links between food and global warming. Some of the most serious center on how food is produced and transported. And much of the focus is on meat and dairy. As a result, vast swaths of forest are being cleared for pastures, robbing the planet of trees, which absorb carbon dioxide. Cattle and sheep also release vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. A recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN produced startling findings: The animals' burps, the nitrous oxide gases from their decomposing manure and the energy needed to store and transport meat were responsible for 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions - more than the entire transportation sector.
Today in Scripture
"(On the 4th) morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away..." (Exo 16:21)
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