A plan by the Pope to authorise the widespread return of the controversial Latin Mass, despite concerns that parts of it are anti-Semitic, has provoked a backlash among senior clergy in Britain and threatens to divide the Catholic Church worldwide.
Pope Benedict XVI urged all Roman Catholics in China to unite under his authority, praising the underground faithful for their loyalty to Rome but saying they should reconcile with Catholics of the official state-run church.
Germany's 6-month EU presidency comes to an end this weekend. Not impressed by the treaty deal, Chancellor Merkel's domestic critics say she needs to focus more attention on issues at home.
Germany has handed over the EU presidency to Portugal. For the next 6 months Premier Jose Socrates, seen as a tough reformer at home, will face the challenge of his career: keeping the EU treaty process on track.
A deal on Europe's future, stitched together at last week's bad-tempered summit, began to unravel yesterday after the intervention of the EU's most unpredictable leader. The Polish Prime Minister, who sent his brother Lech, the President, to the summit, stunned Brussels by declaring his determination to renegotiate the compromise.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro has criticised the workings of the EU, saying the bloc is in disarray. In an editorial in the Cuban daily Granma, he wrote that the EU's internal voting and veto system "is politically dysfunctional and curtails, in practice, the sovereignty of all members. The European Union is today in worse shape than the former socialist block ever was."
Addressing the summit of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization in Istanbul, Putin pushed for long-term energy contracts for the Black Sea littoral states. In about 72 hours flat, Europe's energy map may have been redrawn.
Welcome to the new Cold War. The deployment of the US Missile Defense System in Eastern Europe is a de facto declaration of war on the Russian Federation. Putin cannot ignore the gravity of the proposed system or the threat it poses to Russia 's national security. Bush's missile defense is not defensive at all, but offensive. It thrusts US military bases - with nuclear infrastructure and radar - up to Russia 's doorstep giving the US a clear advantage in "first-strike" capability. Putin must force Bush to remove this dagger held to Moscow 's throat.
Hamas has rejected a proposal by the Palestinian president to send an international force to Gaza to enable early elections. "We are in the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation. We are in no need for more forces to put more pressure on us. We are able to resolve our internal problems ourselves."
Zimbabwe's leading cleric has called on Britain to invade the country and topple President Robert Mugabe. The Archbishop of Bulawayo, warned that millions were facing death from famine, unable to survive amid inflation believed to have soared to 15,000%.
In truth, the Paris conference last Monday had little to do with a serious attempt to resolve the Darfur crisis. In part Sarkozy is trying to show that French imperialism's African resources make it a valuable junior partner for Washington. At stake are valuable resources in Sudan, notably its considerable oil reserves, which currently generate $2 billion in revenue, and investments linked to those resources.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed US allegations of Iran meddling in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territory, state television reported. "'American accusations against Iran are unfounded. Instead of searching for the real reasons, which is people's hatred of the United States, they accuse the Islamic republic of Iran."
The head of the Majlis Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy in a meeting with the Head of Italian Senate Commission on Foreign Policy warned that creating any kind of crisis in the Persian Gulf region would have undesirable consequences for the whole world.
Iran's real threat to the US has less to do with nuclear ambitions and more to do with an explosive tension between politics and resources.
It has long been apparent that Cheney's genius is that he lets Bush get out of bed every morning actually believing he is the President. In fact, his presidency is run by the President of the Senate, for Cheney is its true center of gravity.
America is being destroyed. Many Americans are unaware, others are indifferent, and some intend it. The destruction is across the board: the political and constitutional system, the economy, social institutions including the family itself, citizenship, and the character and morality of the American people. The foundation of social organization - marriage, family, and parental control over children - is disintegrating.
Yet another 4th of July approaches, a holiday on which we all commemorate America's big, shiny image of itself by emulating what it does best: Spend lots of money to blow stuff up.
Barring a surprise arrival of the kind of gully washers Texas is getting these days, Los Angeles' driest year in 130 years of record-keeping will go into the books this weekend. The nation's second-largest city is missing nearly a foot of rain for the year. And it's much the same all over the West, from the measly snow pack and fire-scarred Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada to Arizona's shrinking Lake Powell and the withering Colorado River watershed. The weather that's withering Los Angeles and drowning Texas are connected, said a Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who researches the ocean's role in climate variations and has watched a Western drought grow for 7 years.
Late Saturday, Britain raised its security alert level to critical - the highest possible level, indicating terror attacks may be imminent. In an interview, Brown said Britons must realize that the terrorist threat Britain faces is "long-term and sustained" and they must remain "constantly vigilant" about security.
(LX op-ed: Lucky escape for London)
(LT cartoon: The 1st day)
German press...
Many may be hoping for a major shift in British policy with the appointment of new Prime Minister Gordon Brown's cabinet. But many of his ministers previously served under Tony Blair and the German press is skeptical of any new beginning in Britain.
President Sarkozy pledged to shake up and renew France when he took office. And he started with his cabinet, which includes 11 women - 3 of them from minority backgrounds.
Whether lying about raiding the biscuit tin or denying they broke a toy, all children try to mislead their parents at some time. Yet it now appears that babies learn to deceive from a far younger age than anyone previously suspected. Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as 6 months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life.
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