Pope Benedict XVI has reminded the faithful to heed today's Gospel reading by detaching themselves from material goods and instead preparing interiorly for Christ's return.
The second encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI will focus on economic issues, Vatican officials say. The forthcoming encyclical would continue the series of papal statements on Catholic social teaching. He is preparing the document for the 40th anniversary of Populorum Progressio, the social encyclical released in 1967 by Pope Paul VI.
In his brief "Preface" to Europe: Today and Tomorrow - a collection of 8 essays, lectures, and homilies that touch on the nature of Europe and the concept of politics that this entails - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger remarked that he had not particularly planned to speak on these topics. But "I have been invited repeatedly during the past decade to give conferences on this subject (of Europe)."
The foreign policy advisor for the opposition free-market liberal FDP spoke to Deutsche Welle about German concerns regarding international peacekeeping missions and why Germany's army should be in Darfur.
Schools [and COG "prophets"] are perpetuating damaging stereotypes of Germans because of their "obsession" with Hitler and WW2. The vast numbers of pupils who choose to study the Nazi period in history is fuelling anti-German feeling, the Church of England said. This undercurrent is reinforced by the large number of war films shown on television and the "drip feed" of anti-German comments in the media. It said that the role of Britain in defeating the Nazis had reinforced "a sense of moral righteousness" and inhibited "soul-searching" over our own history.
After a call for new elections, Poland's Prime Minister sacked 4 government ministers from his junior coalition partners and declared the coalition for finished.
The announcement Saturday by President Vladimir Putin that Russia has launched a vast program to improve the country's missile defense system is being presented as a response to American plans to deploy a similar new US anti-missile system in Eastern Europe. But it comes in the context of other recent Russian steps that suggest a determined and coordinated effort by the Kremlin to assert a return to great-power status by restoring much of the military power of the old Soviet Union. To suspicious observers in the West and to US military commanders who must make their own strategic assessments based on the capabilities of potential rivals, it must look as if the Russian bear is back.
President Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community.
Diplomats say head of Syrian military intelligence has convinced Assad that only war will bring Israel to negotiation table.
Celebrations are under way across Pakistan to commemorate the 60th anniversary of independence from the UK and the creation of the country.
Although a recent deal to transport Iranian natural gas to Europe through Turkey could undermine US efforts to isolate Iran's oil and gas economy, it may also provide an attractive alternative to European reliance on Russian supplies.
President Ahmadinejad has said enforcement of regional treaties will help prevent the formation of a unipolar world order. He stated treaties amongst the Middle Eastern nations will help avert the dominance of a unipolar system in the world, and added, "The unification resulting from such treaties will ultimately boost regional peace and security."
"We may have a more conservative Bush presidency with Rove back in Texas." Rove was a "master in the care and feeding of conservative leaders, keeping them mostly silent as the Republican Party moved left during the Bush presidency."
(OEN: Cheney helped force Rove out)
(LX cartoon: Bush loses brain)
When it comes to foreign policy, particularly as it relates to the Middle East, there is not a whole lot of separation between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Both Republicans and Democrats reflexively support Israel, and nearly all candidates are in agreement on a number of other areas, including an aggressive policy toward Iran.
What it means to be British will swing centre stage this week, and we may, in hindsight, see this question, in one guise or another, as the big issue that comes to dominate Gordon Brown's premiership. Scottish independence is now one of the big questions that the English, who make up more than four fifths of the electorate to Westminster, will have to face. They can only sensibly do so by developing, in response, a clear statement on what it means to be English as distinct from simply British.
By some estimates, $326.3 billion has now been added to the G-7 Nations' intra-banking system to prevent a breakdown. That amount will rise considerably in the weeks ahead as the situation continues to deteriorate. Some readers may remember that on August 7, the Fed announced that it was NOT planning to bail out the market. My, how quickly things change. The investment banks and fund mangers love "free markets" when it means eliminating the rules that prevent them to "gaming the system". But they don't like it so much when their shabby Ponzi-rackets start to unravel. Then they're the first in line to beg for a bailout. If it wasn't for Bernanke's billions of dollars of low interest credit - the banking system and stock market would collapse in a heap.
Goldman Sachs has made the announcement that everyone has been waiting for. The investment bank admitted yesterday that 3 of its high-profile hedge funds had off-loaded massive equity holdings following days of stock market turbulence.
(LT comment: GS puts its money where its mouth is)
The US subprime mortgage crisis has hit banks and stock markets worldwide, revealing just how fragile the money network is. The European Central Bank has just announced its 3rd cash injection into money markets since Thursday. But is it enough to restore business as usual?
The European Central Bank said it will offer cash to banks for a 4th trading day to avert a crisis of confidence in credit markets.
German banks are still looking vulnerable to the after-shocks of the US subprime mortgages credit crunch of last week. New stateside bankruptcies and tremors from earlier ones are unnerving the German banking sector.
The last thing China needs is to give American politicians new excuses to erect protectionist defenses against Chinese imports. So it is stupefying that some Chinese officials - with the blessing of the government press - have been talking of using China's enormous cache of US Treasury bonds as an economic weapon. Such warnings may be an unsurprising response to some of the intemperate language coming from Capitol Hill. Nevertheless, they are playing with fire.
A major crisis loomed in Nigeria's oil and gas industry yesterday as senior workers threatened to withdraw from the Niger Delta if the current spate of killings in the region continues.
(UPI: Oil and gas pipeline watch)
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