Benedict XVI received in audience the director of the UN nuclear watchdog agency who is taking part in negotiations regarding nuclear proliferation in Iran. The Vatican press office did not give details about today's meeting.
2 thumbs up!!...
President Bush drew gasps at the Vatican on Saturday by referring to Pope Benedict XVI as "sir" instead of the expected "His Holiness", pool reporters said. They also noted Bush's relaxed posture, crossing his legs "Texan style" while facing the pope across his desk in the private study of the apostolic palace.
President Bush, deeply unpopular here and met by boisterous protests, sought to impress Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian public on Saturday with his humanitarian record and downplayed differences with the Vatican over Iraq.
Crazy Catholics Causing Confusion...
"This is a mystery that is beyond our understanding, and we should not be surprised if even today many people struggle to accept the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. ... The Eucharist remains a 'sign of contradiction,' and it cannot be otherwise, because a God Who becomes flesh and sacrifices Himself for the life of the world throws human wisdom into crisis."
When 'God's banker' was found hanged under London's Blackfriars Bridge 25 years ago, it led to 'a web of financial and political intrigue'. Last week, Philip Willan was in court in Rome as 5 people were found not guilty of the crime. Which leaves the question …
A growing shortage of prospective wives in eastern Germany has prompted the government to spend millions of pounds on enticing eligible women to settle there. The imbalance in the sex ratio has spawned problems other than a fall in the birth rate. It highlights concern about a new male-dominated underclass and a bitterness that has driven poorly educated men to support extremist political parties. "We believe a devaluation of the traditional male role leads men to vote for the far right."
In Belgium's parliamentary elections today, one issue bound to feature is the power struggle between the French-speaking Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish. Few realize there is a 3rd, German-speaking minority.
This year's G-8 summit has been a considerable success for Chancellor Merkel. Her biographer analyzes her strategy and explains how she came up with the goods.
Negotiations on a new look treaty for the European Union are likely to dominate events this week with the decisive 21-June summit fast approaching.
Labour has been plunged into a bruising referendum row after Tony Blair secretly agreed the blueprint for a new European treaty - presenting Gordon Brown, the prime minister-in-waiting, with his first big dilemma.
Gordon Brown must be wishing darkly that Tony Blair had brought forward his departure by 5 days. The Prime Minister will hang around just long enough to travel to Brussels and approve, in outline form, the revived European constitution. In doing so, he will put his successor in a frightful pickle.
For the past 2 elections, Labour's manifesto has been admirably clear on the issue of a constitution for the EU: "We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a Yes vote." Tony Blair's final act as Prime Minister is likely to be to break that commitment. Blair will justify this blatant perfidy by claiming that the document is not a constitution: it is just a "treaty".
After using her powers of persuasion at the G8 summit, Chancellor Merkel will turn her attention to EU leaders this week. The chancellor has set up meetings with seven heads of state and government in and around Berlin in an attempt to reach a consensus on reviving the stalled EU constitution.
Poland will veto a proposal for a new EU treaty if negotiations on voting rights are not extended, a Polish member of the European Parliament warned.
EU transportation ministers have approved the use of billions of euros in public funds to finance the ailing satellite-navigation system Galileo.
Leaders of the Group of 8 leading industrial countries failed to agree on the future status of Kosovo after Russia rejected a proposal unexpectedly presented by President Sarkozy
(UPI: Kosovo's uncertain outlook)
Angered by western 'imperialism' and emboldened by soaring oil riches, the Russian bear is growling again. Sunday Times reporters analyse the new threat from the east and explain why it cannot be ignored.
Well, it looks as if President Putin has snookered President Bush – and most West European leaders as well – during the run-up to the G-8 meeting in Germany. Ah, Russia the mediator, Russia the wise, home of international statesmen, Russia the reasonable, Russia the relevant. And most of all, Russia the Great Power, once again.
The threat of an invasion didn't materialize, and yet the Turkish army's activities in northern Iraq Wednesday revealed that it is only waiting for the right opportunity to launch strikes against the Kurdish separatist organization PKK in northern Iraq. Emotions are running dangerously high.
All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Olmert. Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.
Wow!!...
Israel's former parliament speaker has branded Israel as a 'Zionist ghetto', scoffing at the regime's self-definition as a Jewish state. "It [Israel] can't work anymore. It's explosive. It's dynamite."
The Muslim Brotherhood established itself in Sudan in 1949. In 1964, Hassan al-Turabi became the leader of the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. This individual, born in 1932, was highly educated, with a PhD in Law from the Sorbonne and a PhD in Law from the University of London.
A group claiming to represent the al-Qaida terror network declared a holy war on India over its partial control of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. "We declare righteous holy war against India on behalf of God the great in which Jammu and Kashmir will be the launch pad for holy war in India."
Russia's Foreign Minister said that US missile defense plans could worsen the Iranian nuclear stand-off and urged Washington to freeze work on the issue with the Czech Republic and Poland.
(Pravda: Putin's proposal catch US off guard)
Military action is one of the options in dealing with Iran's nuclear program, Israel's deputy prime minister said, after discussing the issue with senior US officials.
Iran has threatened to launch a missile blitz against the Gulf states and plunge the entire Middle East into war if America attacks its nuclear facilities. Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a senior defence adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that Gulf states providing the US with military cooperation would be the key targets of a barrage of ballistic missiles.
Will Gordon Brown - an unelected leader and PM in waiting - heed Hobsbawm's understanding of where we are? Probably not. His recent announcements about the 'war on terror', or the 'long war', and his committment to extending the length of time people can be detained without charge, indicate a willingness to carry on the same, committing war crimes abroad and constricting civil rights at home. Is he a new PM for a new war or has he the courage to say no to Cheney's lust for nuking Iran?
Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) became the 6th and 7th total cosponsors of Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) bill to impeach Dick Cheney.
In choosing to recommend an admiral as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Gates has for the 2nd time given a high-profile job to someone from the Navy — a service that has, for the most part, worked only on the fringes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[WAR: Is this because they're getting ready for the naval/air attack on Iran?!!]
Support our troops. It's the only rallying cry left. It's the dirty, shredded little yellow ribbons and tattered flags that used to mean nationalistic pride and now nobody's really up to replacing them and, since it's impossible to agree on much of anything about the Iraq invasion, occupation and subsequent unmitigated disaster, we're all supposed to at least agree to "support our troops." Personally, I don't support the troops; never have; don't have the flag-waver gene.
Hollowed out by arrogance, corruption and a bloated military, the greatest empire the world has ever known fell. Is America doomed to follow in its footsteps?
Ah-haa!...
Paris Hilton almost got to do her jail stint at home thanks to Sheriff Lee Baca. Hilton's would-be savior just so happens to be a huge supporter not only of Paris, but of Scientology!
[WAR: Is the reaction of most people to Paris a glimpse of how people will react when Israel is punished during Jacob's Trouble? "Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies." (Lam 1:2)]
Economic growth is underwater and yet the stock market is still flying-high. So, what gives? It's easy. The markets are just responding to the growth in the money supply which is in double-digits just about everywhere around the world. When there are more dollars chasing the same number of assets -- -stocks go up. It's just that simple. What we're seeing isn't the result of investor confidence or industrial output. Heck no! Stocks are rising because our $800 billion current account deficit is recycling into the stock market. What we are really seeing is the first signs of inflation -- galloping inflation which will soon spill over into the broader economy.
President Putin today called for practical steps to redraw the world economic order to reflect the growing role of fast-growing emerging nations. He told an economic forum in St Petersburg many global trade and financial institutions tailored to meet the interests of a few key economies were ineffective and pointed to flexible regional groupings as an alternative.
The dead bees under Dennis vanEngelsdorp's microscope were like none he had ever seen. He had expected to see mites or amoebas, perennial pests of bees. Instead, he found internal organs swollen with debris and strangely blackened. The bees' intestinal tracts were scarred, and their rectums were abnormally full of what appeared to be partly digested pollen. Dark marks on the sting glands were telltale signs of infection.
The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for "episodic" memories—information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart. The finding helps explain where déjà vu originates in the brain, and why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients.
Network TV coverage, testimony and commentary on September 11, 2001.
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