Without love, faith will fall short of its goal, and reason will lack a foundation, concluded a professor of Islamic sciences during an interreligious reflection on Benedict XVI's Regensburg address.
The vicious attack on 8 Indians in the eastern German town of Mügeln has turned the spotlight on Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen, whose remit includes fighting right-wing extremism. Spiegel spoke to the minister about her efforts to combat extremism and build civil society structures in the former East Germany.
Chancellor Merkel's visit to China has been overshadowed by a report in Spiegel claiming that the Chinese government has been hacking into computers in Merkel's chancellery and 3 other Berlin ministries.
As France prepares to assume the EU's driving seat in July next year, President Sarkozy has indicated he wants to turn the 27-nation bloc into a decisive player in the global arena – something he says would result in a fairer and more harmonious world order.
Israel's Defense Minister told the Egyptian government the Jewish state is willing to forfeit control over the Temple Mount to the management of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, according to an Arab media report.
Upheaval in the Middle East and Islamic civilization could cause another world war, the US ambassador to the UN was quoted as saying in an Austrian newspaper. Zalmay Khalilzad said the Middle East was now so disordered that it had the potential to inflame the world as Europe did during the first half of the 20th century.
The EU has been given the go-ahead to prepare for military deployment in Chad and the Central African Republic together with the UN, to protect refugees and civilians caught in the spill over violence of the Darfur conflict. France is expected to make up most of the EU force as it already has 3,000 military personnel in Chad – a former French colony.
Iran has resolved UN questions about tests with plutonium, a key fuel for atomic bombs, and the International Atomic Energy Agency considers the matter closed, according to the text of an IAEA-Iran accord released on Monday. It would be the first major issue relating to the scope of Iran's disputed nuclear program closed by the UN nuclear watchdog in a 4-year investigation stonewalled up to now, with other questions to be settled within the next few months.
President Sarkozy called Iran's nuclear ambition the world's most dangerous problem yesterday and raised the possibility that the country could be bombed if it persisted in building an atomic weapon. "This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."
Anyone who doubts that the war party is firmly focused on Iran need only take note of the Aug. 21 lead editorial in the Washington Post, which had the heading "Tougher on Iran: The Revolutionary Guard is at war with the United States. Why not fight back?" The Post editorial demonstrates that it's not just Fox News beating the drum for war with Iran.
As Bush is preparing for war on Iran, if he has not already decided on war, where is Congress, which alone has the constitutional power to authorize a war? Or has it given Bush and Cheney another blank check?
A group of former government officials along with current Congressional candidates, authors and activists has issued an urgent warning that a faction of the US government allied with Dick Cheney is planning to stage a terror event or provocation as a pretext for launching military attacks against Iran and implementing emergency powers in America.
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has been closely associated with the anti-democratic measures introduced by the Bush administration, announced his resignation on Monday. The resignation is one more sign of a crisis of the Bush administration, which has seen many of its leading figures depart. The Gonzales resignation represents an attempt by the Bush administration to reach an accommodation with critics that will allow the attack on democratic rights to continue. The exposure of blatant partisanship and lying had turned Gonzales into an obstacle in pursuing these policies. The fact that Chertoff is at the head of possible replacements for Gonzales sends a signal that the basic policy will continue.
(WND: Hasta la vista, Alberto)
We appear to live in a republic. But look closely; it's clearer every day that we live in a de facto autocracy. President Bush has managed to amass an astounding amount of power. Thomas Jefferson said, "An elective despotism is not what we fought for." Well, we got it anyway.
Oil prices rose today following reports of problems at 2 US refineries and amid expectations a midweek US petroleum stocks report will show gasoline supplies fell again.
A mystery trader risks losing around $1 billion dollars after placing 245,000 put options on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 index, leading many analysts to speculate that a stock market crash preceded by a new 9/11 style catastrophe could take place within the next month. The trader stands to make around $2 billion from their investment should an event trigger a market crash before the 3rd week in September.
With Wall Street begging the Federal Reserve to cut the Fed Funds target rate, few have noticed the effective rate already has been lowered, triggering what could be the beginning of an unprecedented worldwide dollar sell-off.
Faced with a possible tidal wave of home foreclosures beginning this autumn, Democrats and Republicans are battling over a philosophical question with huge practical implications: Should the government ride to the rescue?
Central banks have signaled that interest rates are less certain to rise than had been indicated just a few weeks ago, as weak US housing data sent fresh shivers through world markets. An economist at Rabobank in Hong Kong, said the ECB could still raise rates in September, so long as there is no more major fallout in financial markets. "We could have this somewhat bizarre situation where we have a Fed rate cut and an ECB rate hike."
Stephen Jen, chief currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in London - one analyst with a penchant for truth-telling - fears the Fed might head down the same path that Greenspan did. And since cheaper dollars can be converted into cheaper euros and yen in the blink of an eye, that's a decision that matters worldwide. "If the Fed eases but rekindles speculative flows," Jen said, "it will backfire on everyone."
The World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, is bringing a touch of Goldman Sachs to rescue the poverty-fighting agency's slumping business. The former Goldman vice chairman has concluded, after 2 months on the job, that the group must behave more like a Wall Street investment firm to halt a worldwide slide in lending. At stake is the bank's survival in a rising sea of private capital.
This new Theology of Capitalism is based on blind faith...in the dollar...in modern economies...and in the central bankers who manipulate them both.
Merlin the magician - hirsute confidant of King Arthur and the architect of Camelot - was, in fact, Scottish, according to a new book. While the English, Welsh and even the French have laid claim to the wizard with the peaked hat for centuries, this is the first time that anyone has tried to shift Camelot north of the border.
Yes!...
Is there a simple, natural way to improve mood and ward off depression? A diet rich in vitamins, minerals and fatty acids like omega-3 is the basis for physical well-being. Everybody knows that. But research increasingly suggests that these same ingredients are crucial to psychological health too.
Fires Globally: American scholars put together an image of worldwide fires over the period of August 9 to 18. Southern Africa and South American burn more than elsewhere.
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