At this First Vespers of the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, let us commemorate with gratitude these two Apostles whose blood with that of so many other Gospel witnesses made the Church of Rome fruitful. In Rome, since the earliest centuries, the bond that unites Peter and Paul in their mission has acquired a very specific significance. Like Romulus and Remus, the two mythical brothers who are said to have given birth to the City, so Peter and Paul were held to be the founders of the Church of Rome.
The German Protestant Church compared Tom Cruise to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and claimed the actor was using his celebrity status to publicise the controversial Church of Scientology.
The more US soldiers the Army can send to Bavaria the better, Bavarian Minister-President Edmund Stoiber said during a Soldiers' Reception here. At one time, there were 70,000 US soldiers stationed in Bavaria, Stoiber told the audience of mostly US and German soldiers. "Now there are only about 20,000. However, we need American soldiers here in Europe and would prefer to have as many as possible in Bavaria."
The German government has vowed not to give in to Taliban demands that it pull its troops out of Afghanistan despite the kidnapping of 2 German engineers, one of whom has died. Media commentators say Germany knows the price of giving in to the "Hitlers and bin Ladens" of this world.
Top Pentagon officials are considering whether they should halt the drawdown of US troops stationed in Europe, a plan that may be outdated because of the war in Iraq and other world developments.
Torrential rainfall caused huge disruptions in many parts of Western Europe this weekend. Meanwhile, soaring temperatures in Eastern Europe killed 22 people.
The EU kicked off its procedural journey towards a new Treaty on Monday with 277 pages of draft Treaty text on the table, and Poland showing a fresh willingness to compromise on the sensitive issue of voting weights.
As Belgrade and Pristina are heading for last resort negotiations on the future of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, the EU is set to maintain its fragile unity over the issue, amid clear signs it could become as divisive as Iraq did in 2003.
The Russian Orthodox Church's growing influence threatens to erode the separation of church and state and upset other officially-recognized religions, leading [Jewish?] academics warned President Putin. "We are becoming increasingly concerned by the growing role of clerics in Russian society, by the church's penetration into all facets of social life." A former officer with the KGB, which treated priests as subversives, Putin says he is an Orthodox believer, and he turns out for major Orthodox festivals.
After Sunday's election Turkey is still as starkly divided as it has ever been about what kind of country it wants to be. The National Action Part, strongly opposed to joining the EU, aims to unite the Turkic people in a "Greater Turkey" that encompasses Xinjiang in China, Central Asia, the Caucasus and northwest Iran. Its more extremist theoreticians also include Hungary and Finland in their "family of Turkish nations".
(LX op-ed: Keeping his head)
The EU has pledged to take on a major role in planned talks on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and urged Israel for further steps on commitments made to the Palestinian government.
All is quiet on the Middle Eastern front - for the time being. A little over a year after the war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah ended almost as abruptly as it had started, there are rumblings of renewed violence possibly breaking out in the Middle East. "The situation is likely to get worse before it gets better." The next few months "will be a waiting game and the hatches have all been battened down." Yes, the Middle Eastern front may be quiet. But is it the proverbial calm before the storm?
(UPI: Dogs of war)
EU nations agreed Monday to start planning for a possible 3,000-strong peacekeeping mission to Chad to help protect aid to tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in Darfur. A meeting of EU foreign ministers said that any mission had to be backed by the UN "with a clearly defined exit strategy" and in cooperation with the African Union, neighboring countries and humanitarian aid groups.
Hassan Al Turabi is a controversial figure and a stubborn political opponent. His views go beyond politics and borders on issues related to religion. He issued jurisdictions that contradict the fundamental way of Islam, which were criticised by the conservatives who called him an infidel. His style may suit what he describes as "the volatile politics" of Sudan that marked the development of the country in the past five decades, but still remains an exceptional leader with an unprecedented influence over a large number of Sudanese.
Any US attack on Pakistan would be a catastrophic mistake. Pakistan's army officers who refuse to be bought may resist a US attack on their homeland, and overthrow the man who allowed it, Gen. Musharraf. A US attack would sharply raise the threat of anti-US extremists seizing control of strategic Pakistan and marginalize those seeking return to democratic government. And a US attack on the tribal areas could re-ignite the old irredentist movement to reunite Pashtun parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan into independent state, "Pashtunistan." That could begin unraveling fragile Pakistan, leaving its nuclear arsenal up for grabs, and India tempted to intervene. Those Bush Administration officials who foolishly advocate attacking Pakistan are playing with fire.
Iran's Hezbollah party says a decree by Saudi Arabian muftis to destroy holy shrines in Iraq is a declaration of war against Muslims. The enemies of Islam now are now disguise themselves as Wahhabi muftis who have ties with the US, said the statement adding that the decree is further proof of a conspiracy by arrogant power for creating a rift among Shias and Sunnis. The Wahhabi muftis of Saudi Arabia recently called on their followers living in Iraq to destroy the holy shrines of Imam Hussein and Hazrat Abbas, members of the infallible household of Prophet Mohammad.
An official with Bushehr nuclear power plant has said construction of the facility is complete by 93.6%.
Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency have begun the 2nd round of talks on Iran's nuclear case at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. The talks are going on behind closed doors. The two sides are exploring avenues for settling the remaining issues between Iran and the agency on Tehran's nuclear program.
Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the world in an interview to form a united front against Iran that would force the Islamic republic to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that tougher sanctions are likely against Iran over its contested nuclear program while declining to rule out the possibility of future military action against the country. He said Britain would "take whatever measures are necessary to strengthen the sanctions regime in the future."
In an extremely broad executive order issued on July 17, President Bush authorized the Treasury Department to freeze the property of anyone determined to be hindering US actions in Iraq and the stability of the US-backed regime in Baghdad. The wording is vague enough to encompass not only those resisting the occupation directly, but also US citizens involved in antiwar activity.
(WDIM: Bush outlaws all war protest)
US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., has joined the chorus of those in high places who are warning of a major worldwide economic downturn. Paulson was quoted at length in a July 23, 2007, article in Fortune entitled, "The Greatest Economic Boom Ever: Enjoy It While It Lasts." Paulson's remarks came in the context of assessing the ability of the highly-leveraged equity, hedge, and derivative markets to withstand the shocks to come.
Ultimately, gold will surge, once it becomes clear that the euro lacks the staying power to serve as an alternative to the dollar. To restate a point I have made many times, the euro-zone is an ill-assorted mix of 13 unconverged national economies – with national treasuries, debt structures, taxes, pensions, and labour laws - that are not ready to share a currency, and are drifting further apart by the day.
We may have a situation where sharp dollar falls caused by impending rate cuts by the Fed sets off a systemic crisis for Euroland. If so, politics will quickly take over from economics and begin to dictate events in Europe. The ECB will have to stop raising rates (whatever Berlin wants), and the euro will become a structurally weak currency tilted to the need of the weakest players. If it doesn't, the EU itself will blow up.
Gold will fly once investors can see that neither of the two reserve currency pillars (euro and dollar) is on a sound foundation, and once the pair are engaged in a beggar-thy-neighbour devaluation contest to stave off a slump. This would amount to a partial breakdown of the monetary system. Gold will not stop at $800. It might well go beyond $2,000.
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