Cardinal Etchegaray delivered a letter written by Benedict XVI to Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, but says "trust must be built" before the leaders can meet. The prelate said the desire of both is "that the meeting be well-prepared and that it take place in the best conditions of truth."
the governor of the Croatian National Bank (HNB), Zeljko Rohatinski, "concluded with regret" that yesterday's statement by Edmund Stoiber is "incorrect in content, and unsuitable by its character." "It is inappropriate that Mr Stoiber is once again placing political pressure on Croatia, showing it as a 'hostage' to the unacceptable (to him) politics of the HNB. We will inform the responsible institutions of the European Union who have already shown interest in this unacceptable attempt at politicizing the whole case, and influencing the autonomy of a central bank."
At a time when all the leading political parties in Germany are moving to the right, poverty and inconceivable wealth are growing at opposite poles, the government is handing over state assets to the highest bidder and the German army is once again waging war throughout the world, the results of an opinion poll are striking in several respects.
The chief executive of one of Germany's largest state-backed banks warned that foreigners were increasingly loath to extend credit to financial institutions in Europe's largest economy, which could spark a crisis.
Just last week, German banks reassured the world that they weren't overly exposed to the American sub-prime crisis. The weekend bailout of Sachsen LB, though, brings Germany's Achilles' heel into the spotlight.
German press...
Just what did a small, state-owned bank in Saxony think it was doing by investing billions in the risky American subprime market? German commentators on Monday say managers were looking for an easy buck at the taxpayers' expense.
German investor confidence fell more than expected this month, pushed down by fears over the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Amid escalating violence in Afghanistan and growing debate in Germany about negotiating with parts of the Taliban, a news magazine reported that the German secret service held talks with the radical Islamists in 2005.
(UPI analysis: Meeting the Taliban)
By French standards, President Sarkozy took an unusually short summer break. But his 2week absence was long enough for a series of economic woes to develop that could make an already tough reform agenda that much tougher, officials and economists said.
For the past several years, the Russia of Vladimir Putin has been sending very clear signals that it is no longer the weakened, troubled and Western-dependent state that it was following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia is once again a proud and assertive nation, increasingly recognizable by its actions to historians of its czarist and Communist predecessors.
A Syrian newspaper accused the United States on Monday of pushing Israel to war with Syria. "American aid to Israel comes at a time when it is not only rejecting peace but also threatening and vowing to work around the clock to conduct military maneuvers in preparation of a new war. It is no secret that the war statements made by Israel officials against Syria are not pointless but express Israel's true intentions towards Syria."
An insane plan authorized by President Bush to join Turkey in a covert war to assassinate leaders of a Kurdish rebel group in northern Iraq was exposed after a former Dick Cheney aide briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill. There is yet another aspect to the Bush plan that may concern some on the Hill. Turkey has its own agenda in respect to how it would like to see the Iraq conflict resolved.
Iran and IAEA have held the 3rd and final round of talks aimed at easing concerns over the remaining issues on Iran's nuclear program. The talks, which opened on Monday, were aimed at reaching agreement over a modality plan to clear up the remaining ambiguities about Iran's nuclear program. The two sides are to hold a press conference later today to unveil the outcome of the talks.
A top State Department official said that it was "absolutely unacceptable logic" to suggest that a renewed Iranian willingness to work with IAEA officials was grounds to delay a new push for sanctions against Tehran. He urged US allies to crack down severely on trade with that country. "We intend to push it very, very hard." He predicted a "harder-edged, tougher diplomacy" in dealing with what he called "the most radical and dangerous government in the Middle East."
We are witnessing the rise of a multipolar world in which new powers are challenging different aspects of US supremacy - Russia and China in the forefront, with regional powers Venezuela and Iran forming the second rank. These emergent powers are primed to erode US hegemony, not confront it, singly or jointly. How and why has the world evolved in this way so soon?
European stock markets fell today despite gains in Asia and the US, and attempts by the Federal Reserve to ease concerns about a US mortgage crisis.
The Bank of England has said it lent money directly to a financial instiution from its emergency lending facility, as the flight to quality assets by investors gathered pace again today.
The stock market was quiet yesterday, but debt markets were anything but. In a sign that investors are fleeing investments that carry even the slightest hint of risk, the price of short-term government debt soared, sending yields on their biggest drop since the stock market crash of 1987. The calm Monday in stock trading masked what many Wall Street analysts said was still very much a market on edge. "There's just a massive fear factor at play here."
There's nothing like a bit of turbulence to bring out the Armageddon tendency. Financial markets have a morbid appeal to the kind of people who used to walk around town centres wearing Judgment Day sandwich boards. I suspect they lurk in dark corners of the internet these days but they are still eagerly looking out for the Four Horsemen.
The bad news is that the market turmoil could get worse, a great deal worse, despite the Fed's lowering of the discount rate Friday that spurred the Dow Jones to jump by 230 points. The current crisis should be manageable, so long as the China-bashing politicians in the U.S. Congress keep calm, and so long as the Chinese behave responsibly and let their currency continue to rise in value against the dollar. It has risen by 9% over the last 2 years, which is not a bad start. But right now it is in everybody's interest, not least China's, to let it rise by at least another 5%. The alternative could just be another 1931.
Ron Paul on...
As markets went on a rollercoaster ride last week, our economy is coming close to a day of reckoning for loose credit policies being followed by the Federal Reserve Bank. Simply, foreign banks we have been relying on to buy our debt are waking up to the reality of much higher default rates than predicted, and many mortgage-backed securities have been reduced to "junk" ratings. Wall Street fears the possibility of tightening credit and the tightening of America's belts.
Leading central banks have neglected their duties by being "asleep at the switch", triggering fears that the global credit crunch could contribute to "a grave threat" to the health of the world's financial systems, a respected economist has warned.
The witch hunt has begun. French president Sarkozy has vowed to hunt down the "speculators". Germany's Merkel is eyeing laws to curtail hedge funds. Brussels has launched a probe of the rating agencies, suspected of sticking "AAA" and "AA" grades on sub-prime debt for venal motives. The US Congress is orchestrating a show trial of "predatory lenders". The blame-game was ever thus. Wall Street bankers were hounded after the 1929 crash: some went to prison. But if you track down the root cause of this credit bubble - now popped - the "blame" lies with Asian, European and Anglo Saxon central banks.
Amid the hurly-burly and bewilderment of recent weeks, it has been all too easy to overlook the fact that a new order has been quietly imposing itself on the world's financial markets. For the turbulence of 2007 has been marked by the unprecedented coordination of policy and public statements from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and a network of monetary policymakers around the world. In fact, this summer's correction has marked a milestone in the globalisation of central banking.
Crude oil prices fell below $71 a barrel today on global stock-market fears after Hurricane Dean missed key Gulf of Mexico gas and oil facilities.
Astronomers have spotted a space oddity in Earth's neighbourhood - a dead star with some unusual characteristics. The authors estimate that the object is 250 to 1,000 light-years away. This would make Calvera one of the closest neutron stars to Earth - and possibly the closest.
[WAR: Could this be the Sun's missing binary companion, as mentioned in The Lost Star of Myth and Time?!!]
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