Development has to be integral, that is, it must involve all aspects of the person, says Benedict XVI. "The development of these people should have, as a pastoral principle, a global anthropological vision of the human person."
After 6 years of trying, a US senator has made progress toward establishing a committee to examine the possible mistreatment of some German-Americans during WW2.
Gordon Brown faces a bruising battle over Europe as soon as he becomes prime minister after Germany moved last night to resurrect "much of the substance" of the European constitution.
(LT op/ed: We must have our say on any Euro-deal)
Poland and Germany clashed Thursday over how to revive Europe's stalled constitution amid growing signs that Chancellor Merkel was unwilling to accept Polish demands to maximize its power in an expanded EU. A document circulated ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers ignored completely Warsaw's main demand in the negotiations: that the EU revamp its proposed new voting system.
(LX op/ed: Poles apart)
This report from the German Presidency is a response to the mandate which it was given by the European Council at its meeting in June 2006. As requested at the time, the Presidency, in the light of very extensive consultations held over the last six months, provides an assessment of the state of discussion with regard to the treaty reform process and explores possible ways forward.
The dream was for a constitution. But now, the document being considered by the EU is little more than a glorified treaty. In order to get everyone on board, large chunks of the original draft constitution have been eliminated.
Arab countries are eyeing the chaos in Gaza with alarm, fearing that the Palestinian fighting could spread to the West Bank and further destabilize the region. The Arab League chief on Thursday called for a cease-fire, warning of disaster otherwise. Arab governments have been stunned by a battle that is rapidly creating a dramatically new reality on their doorsteps: a Gaza Strip controlled by the militant group Hamas and a West Bank held by the Fatah faction of President Abbas.
It is to the enormous esteem of the Lebanese that they have refused to embark on another civil war despite every provocation. But the provocations have not run out. It can get much, much worse.
More ominous are the grim words of serious US diplomats and soldiers not usually given to bellicose rhetoric. What is going on? The most logical explanation is that the White House is providing advance justification for air strikes on camps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And if the US conducts those strikes, Iranians will unite around Ahmadinejad, and Tehran will order retaliatory strikes against US targets in Iraq and perhaps across the Middle East. President Bush will then have his casus belli to take out Natanz and all the other Iranian nuclear facilities, as the Israelis and the neocons have been demanding that he do.
Afghanistan's defense minister dismissed claims by a top US State Department official that there was "irrefutable evidence" that the Iranian government was providing arms to Taliban rebels. "Actually, throughout, we have had good relations with Iran and we believe that the security and stability of Afghanistan are also in the interests of Iran."
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency cautioned on Thursday that an attack on Iran over its refusal to freeze programs that could make nuclear weapons would be "an act of madness," in indirect warnings to the US and Israel.
The president's trip was a pageant of disdain, delusion and provocation masquerading as a respite from his troubles at home.
The neoconservative ideologues who still run the Bush Administration have nothing left to lose politically – and in their fevered imaginations they still think they could inflict military defeat on the "Islamofascists" in what they now see as an even greater historical confrontation than the Cold War.
Despite the walloping defeat of the Republicans in the 2006 midterm elections that seemed to spell the end of neocon rule in Washington, the clowns are once again spilling out of the Volkswagen. Lately the neocons seem to be all over the public airwaves, and not as the targets of purgative public flogging or tarring ceremonies, but as the subjects of serious interviews, with respected journalists treating them like real human beings with real opinions. Even worse, a few are still in office, and appear to be cooking up a last-minute encore before the curtain finally comes down in '08.
Given the "daily petroleum tab" in the Middle Eastern war zone for the Pentagon, you could, in a sense, say that the Bush administration is "running on empty" and that the Bush Doctrine gives the term "oil wars" new meaning. We may, someday, be fighting our "oil wars" just to preserve that very American right – to run our war machines on petroleum products.
The leader of Britain's Conservative party called himself a "Zionist" Tuesday as he slammed a British initiative for an academic boycott against Israel.
In the beginning the Australian drought was fun. A talking point over the barbecue, an excuse to shower with a lover or spend more cloud-free days with friends at the beach. Tales of thirst-crazed camels rampaging through country towns merely added to the excitement. Sometime last year, the mood changed. Last month, when water storage fell so low that energy supplies were threatened, the sense of panic became palpable. Australia is facing a national crisis, one that promises to transform the country, inexorably changing where people live, what they eat, what they do in their spare time, and - most threatening of all - their future economic well-being.
In recent months millions of Chinese have gone crazy about stocks, driving up prices to record levels. Now the government is trying to dampen the stock market fever and prevent a crash at the same time - but what happens if the bubble bursts?
Today's global liberal democratic order faces a significant challenge from the rise of nondemocratic great powers - the West's old Cold War rivals, China and Russia, now operating under "authoritarian capitalist" rather than Communist regimes. The category is not new - authoritarian capitalist great powers played a leading role in the international system up until 1945.
Here is a selection of fonts and dingbats which you can download free and use. Some of these are featured on the Mythical Ireland website, and most are relative to the content of this site. Many have an Irish/Celtic theme or an astronomical theme.
=========================
