Pope Benedict XVI said he plans to use his nearly 3-week-long vacation in the Italian mountains to write a new book and said he was also preparing a new encyclical. Benedict spoke briefly to reporters as he arrived at a church-owned villa in the mountains near Italy's border with Austria. He said he hopes to work on the 2nd volume of the book "Jesus of Nazareth."
Mamma ho rebuking harlot daughters...
The Vatican has described the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as "not proper Churches" in a document issued with the full authority of the Pope. The document said that the Orthodox church suffered from a "wound" because it did not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound was "still more profound" in Protestant denominations, it added. It was "difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them", said the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Roman Catholicism was "the one true Church of Christ".
(WND poll: What's your reaction?)
After months of anticipation and speculation, after numerous meetings with supporters and opponents, Pope Benedict XVI moved decisively to issue a very brief, 4-page Latin text which may very well go down as one of the most important, and controversial, acts of his pontificate. The implications of this are, of course, many and profound. In essence, the decision to publish this text means a commitment on the Pope's part to try to begin a thorough-going renewal of the Church's faith and practice.
(IHT op-ed: Turning back the liturgical clock)
(ITV: A bishop weeps)
Authentic development must be all-encompassing, said the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. Development "must include each person and the whole person, that is, it must be all encompassing, holistic," because human persons are at the center of creation and "gifted with innate dignity and equal and inalienable rights."
The prospect of new legislation regulating activities of hedge funds and private equity funds in Germany, and the flop of speculative profit expectations, especially on the German housing and real estate market, apparently have led fund managers to the conclusion that "this is no good country to stay in."
Whatever...
Gordon Brown was under renewed pressure to hold a referendum last night after the president of the European Commission hailed the European Union as an "empire". "We are a very special construction unique in the history of mankind. Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organisation of empire. We have the dimension of empire."
The head of the EU executive said it was "inconcievable" that negotiations on the contentious elements of the EU's planned new treaty should be reopened during a conference which is to hammer out final details of the text.
Only a few months after France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, hurried to Germany for a show of friendship, Paris and Berlin are again battling for dominance over European aerospace giant EADS. A showdown may be on the agenda for next week.
NOT gonna happen!...
The European Parliament urged the breakup of energy companies, putting it in direct opposition to France and Germany over planned legislation to increase electricity and natural-gas market competition.
The European Central Bank, which governs the 13-nation euro, should remain independent despite the common currency's strength, Chancellor Merkel said. "For that reason, Germany will not budge from its position."
Poland's Prime Minister won a reprieve Tuesday when a disgruntled coalition partner backpedaled on a threat to leave the government - a move that would have likely brought down the administration.
The Secretary-General of the UN was in Lisbon on Monday to debate pressing international matters. However, regarding this Province of Serbia, it is neither the right of Ban Ki-moon, nor of the EU, nor of Portugal, to take any decision whatsoever. Mind your own business! The frivolity and sheer arrogance with which Kosovo and its possible or eventual independence is referred to, is shocking, immoral, intrusive, meddlesome and beyond creating a very risky precedent, the notion goes against everything that the UN has tried to do for the last half-century, namely the definitive recognition of established borders as a prerequisite for an international community that lives together in peace.
Fresh from "relaunching" Europe, President Sarkozy took his deal-making skills to Algeria today to promote an ambitious plan for a Mediterranean Union. His scheme for a cross-Mediterranean tie-up similar to the EU's common market has hit a wall of scepticism on both sides of the sea and put up backs in Ankara, Beirut and Brussels in particular.
Tony Blair is seeking a broader role as Middle East envoy that would give him more direct involvement in peacemaking, expanding the limited mandate world powers gave him last month.
The Turkish Prime Minister denied any immediate plans to authorise a military invasion in northern Iraq. But he hinted that once elections have taken place later this month that he would reassess Turkey's options. His comments came amid growing speculation that massed Turkish troops will make good a threat to move across the border to clamp down on separatist Kurdish rebels who use bases there for attacks into Turkey.
Predicting that war with Syria could erupt if Prime Minister Olmert does not begin peace negotiations with Damascus, the latest IDF assessment also states that such a conflict would be "at least 10 times worse" than last summer's conflict with Hizbullah.
Of course...
Politicians, Jewish leaders and commentators here have been lashing out at a leftist former Knesset member, international Jewish leader and senior activist of Israel's "peace camp" who called for Israel to cease being a Jewish state.
(WND: The Israeli left unmasked)
Even a few months ago, talk of some kind of Palestinian union with Jordan would have sounded quaint or even conspiratorial, 40 years after Jordan lost control of the West Bank in the 1967 war and nearly 2 decades after Abdullah's father, King Hussein, formally ceded administrative control of the territory to the Palestinians. But as the Palestinian territories have been engulfed in turmoil, with Gaza and the West Bank now divided economically and politically as well as physically, talk of a less ambitious, but no less delicate, federation between Jordan and the West Bank has begun rippling through many Jordanian and Palestinian circles.
The bloodbath was ordered by Musharraf in an apparent bid to placate Washington's demands for harsher measures against radical Islamist forces and shore up his own crumbling political position within Pakistan. There is every possibility, however, that the violent assault on the mosque compound and the significant loss of life will further destabilize Pakistan and could well prove only the first battle in a civil war.
President Ahmadinejad says Iran is ready to remove existing ambiguities regarding its peaceful nuclear activities. "We welcome any type of negotiations and voice our readiness to remove any ambiguity through talks. However, all should keep in mind that we shall not relinquish our legitimate rights or halt our legal activities."
The Israeli ambassador-elect to Britain, Ron Prosor, said Tuesday that the Jews around the world and the global community should do more to focus attention on Iran and its nuclear aspirations. "We don't see enough done [by] the international community or in the Jewish world to put this issue as number one on the agenda."
For the neocons, "al-Qaeda" is a dream come true. ... But wait a minute. Didn't the 9/11 whitewash commission conclude that "al-Qaeda" is in cahoots with Hezbollah and thus Iran?
(PTV: US silent on al-Qaeda threat)
(WND op-ed: Go al-Qaeda! On to Tehran)
The US Navy said Tuesday it had sent a 3rd aircraft carrier to its 5th Fleet area of operations, which includes waters close to Iran. The carrier will join 2 aircraft carriers already in the area, which recently gave the US Navy its biggest presence in the Gulf since the Iraq war began in 2003. The carrier Enterprise "provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behavior of some countries," as well as supporting US soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, a navy statement said.
Despite all of the recent assurances from American officials that the US does not want to wage war on Iran, the past few weeks have seen a palpable increase in the volume of war-mongering rhetoric emanating from Washington.
For the 2nd time in the past few weeks, the War Leaders of the US America 's War Leaders have not responded to repeated attempts by the Kremlin seeking a clarification for this latest US
To put the matter bluntly, Santorum is obviously hoping, and perhaps even praying, for Americans to die at the hands of Jihadists. As others have pointed out, Santorum is not the only prominent Republican figure to predict that wayward Americans, having allowed themselves to doubt the divine insight of the Dear Leader, will soon be smitten by the chastening hand of history.
Sixty days and nights of almost incessant rain threaten to ruin large parts of the French wine harvest this year, especially in Bordeaux. Some small vineyards have already lost their entire crop to a form of mildew, a fungal parasite which thrives in damp and warm conditions. Other forms of mildew, including the dreaded potato blight, are threatening to destroy other crops in France, ranging from tomatoes to cherries.
The dollar fell to a record low against the euro and hit a 26-year bottom against the British pound Tuesday before recovering slightly, as investors fretted about a possible fallout from weakness in the US subprime mortgage market. "The dollar is a basket case. We are going to pay the piper for years of having the underlying fundamentals of our economy disintegrate beneath our feet."
Standard & Poor's said Tuesday that it could cut the credit ratings on $12 billion of bonds backed by subprime mortgages, a move that could force investors to dump the securities and exacerbate losses at hedge funds and securities firms.
"Why don't economists follow the money when it comes to the creation and distribution of money?" There is an answer: economic self-interest. Those few people who understand the inherent moral fraud in all fractional reserve banking find that they are not understood by their peers. They also find that their arguments are not taken seriously by academic economists. They find it difficult to explain why the entire profession has made a monumental methodological error in not applying the theory of monopoly to central banking. The answer is close at hand: self-interest.
The sound of unbridled joy seldom breaks the quiet of the British Museum's great Arched Room, which holds its collection of 130,000 Assyrian cuneiform tablets, dating back 5,000 years. But a visiting professor from Vienna let out such a cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact.
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