The purpose of all learning and culture is the discernment of the supreme human good, and this supreme good is found in Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI said. To illustrate his point, the Holy Father dedicated the Wednesday Audience to St. Gregory of Nyssa, a 4th century Early Church Father. The Pope also explained how Gregory contributed greatly to defense of the faith in the period following the Council of Nicaea, and played a leading role at the Council of Constantinople, which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
(Zenit: Full text of B16 address)
Benedict XVI's move to allow for wider celebration of the Roman Missal of 1962 has received a positive reaction from the Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow. "The recovery and valuing of the ancient liturgical tradition is a fact that we greet positively."
Two centuries ago, there were dozens of independent states in the part of Europe that was German-speaking. Today, there are only 4: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The pint-sized national museum tells the story of the prince and his tiny country. Their family crest dates to the Middle Ages, when the Liechtenstein family was close friends with the Hapsburg family, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire. The Liechtenstein family purchased this piece of real estate from the Holy Roman Emperor.
According to 2 German daily newspapers, Germany's interior ministry plans police-controlled spying of private computers to combat terrorism. Keyboard movements and password entry could also be monitored.
Germany is lagging behind other major industrialized countries in its efforts to attract skilled workers. While other nations see highly qualified immigrants as a benefit, Germany regards them more as a threat - and is setting the hurdles as high as it can.
As the deadline for political agreement on the new European treaty draws closer, EU officials believe that while the treaty outline is relatively tight, up to seven remaining issues are political rather than purely technical.
President Sarkozy said that the views on interest rates of the European Central Bank president were beginning to align with Sarkozy's opposition to higher borrowing costs.
Brussels is planning to prevent foreign companies from having "uncontrolled access" to the European energy sector in a bid to alleviate the fears of EU capitals opposing the separation of supply and distribution channels in energy companies, known as unbundling. According to a European Commission internal paper, non-European energy firms are likely to face a number of restrictive measures, which would significantly curb their ambitions to expand in Europe and own assets and equity shares in the bloc's companies.
Radio Maryja, a right-wing broadcaster founded by an ultra-conservative Catholic priest, is in line to get €15 million in EU funding. The money would go to expand a journalism school for the station, which has been accused of anti-Semitism.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has said he is against having a debate on the geographic borders of the EU. His comments come in response to Monday's proposal by French President Sarkozy to have a "fundamental reflection" on the future of the EU, including its "borders, its future and its message." "The idea of Mr Sarkozy is not to have a debate on the geographical borders of the Europe. This is something that we do not want - such a discussion would lead to the limits of the EU being fixed."
During a visit to the Balkans, Germany's Defense Minister underlined his support for the supervised independence of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo as well as Croatia's desire for EU and NATO membership.
Abdullah Gül's election to the Turkish presidency is controversial in Turkey, mostly due to his roots in political Islam. But in the West, he is seen as the great hope for Ankara's future. German commentators offer their praises on Wednesday.
(UPI analysis: Turkey's big surprise)
British commanders in Basra reacted cautiously last night to a claim by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that he has ordered his militia to suspend offensive operations for 6 months. The surprise statement regarding his notorious Mahdi army, which is responsible for much of Iraq's sectarian blood-letting, not only caught British and American commanders off-guard but appeared to have surprised Baghdad officials too. With large parts of the Mahdi army beyond Sadr's control, the prospect of intra-Shia violence spiralling out of control has grown.
The Bush end game, like Clinton's, is going to see a push for a resolution of the mother of all conflicts. The upper echelons of the State Department are suddenly full of talk of "a supreme effort" for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The bold convocation of a conference in the US in November demonstrates that an empty focus on the incremental has been replaced by a thrust for the finish line: Palestinian statehood next year, or at least a detailed framework for that state.
Not!...
One-hundred-seventy-four people from a group of thousands in India that believes it is one of the 10 "lost tribes" of Israel landed here this week, fulfilling for many a life-long dream of returning to what they consider their homeland. Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization, hopes to bring to the Jewish state the remaining 7,000 Indian citizens who believe they are the Bnei Menashe, the descendants of Manasseh.
Iran has urged the UN Security Council to put an end to Israeli aggression against Palestinians and deal with the regime's nuclear activities. "It is regrettable that the Security Council remains silent on Israel's acts and evades its responsibilities because the US backs the Zionist regime."
On Tuesday, Qum felt festive - bright lights and flags decorated the city. It was the start of celebrations surrounding the birthday of Imam Mahdi, the savior of the Shiite faith. The birthday offers Shiites a chance to welcome a birth, rather than to mourn a death, which tends to be the focus of holy days here. Shiites believe that Imam Mahdi, the 12th imam in a direct bloodline from the Prophet Muhammad, is alive but has remained invisible since the late 9th century, and that he will reappear only when corruption and injustice reach their zenith. This year, in keeping with the government effort to promote and enforce religious values under President Ahmadinejad, the celebration is receiving plenty of attention from the state, even to the point of being extended an extra day.
New tensions between America and Iran spilled into the open yesterday when Teheran lodged a furious protest at the arrest by US soldiers of eight Iranians in Baghdad. Iraq's government lobbied for their release and confirmed that they were helping to repair a power plant. But in a coincidence Iran will not see as accidental, the men were seized as President Bush said he had authorised his commanders in Iraq to "confront Iran's murderous activities".
(WSWS: Another US provocation)
The Bush administration has seemingly taken advantage of the congressional recess to escalate tensions with Iran. What on the surface may appear as business as usual in the war of words between Tehran and Washington may in reality repeat an earlier pattern widely suspected to have been aimed at provoking war with Iran.
(LT op-ed: Cool the war of words over Iran)
(LT cartoon: Bush 'n Ahmad)
President Bush made his last-ditch effort to broaden his defense of and buttress support for the war in Iraq in his address to the 89th annual National Convention of the American Legion. With anger undulating in his eyes and voice, the President was speaking in the manner of a man wading neck-high in water with no hopes for a helping hand. Looking for the nearest wall to throw his rocks at, he found Iran an easy target and started piling accusations on the country.
US Congressman Peter Welch has expressed concern about President Bush's threatening stance toward Iran, saying he can't be trusted. "He's demonstrated a willingness to play it fast and loose when he was justifying Iraq. So I don't have confidence in what the president said (about Iran), and I don't have confidence in his judgment."
After a brief interruption of his New Hampshire vacation to meet President Bush in the family compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, President Sarkozy came away convinced Bush is serious about bombing Iran's secret nuclear facilities. That's the reading as it filtered back to Europe's foreign ministries. A ranking Swiss official, speaking privately, said, "Anyone with a modicum of experience in the Middle East knows that any bombing of Iran would touch off at the very least regional instability and what could be an unmitigated disaster for Western interests."
Why are we losing the war if President Bush has correctly defined the stakes in this "ideological struggle"? One reason is that the true goals of bin Laden, the insurgents in Iraq, and the Taliban are not so abstract as those of Bush. They are concrete, understandable, realizable, and appealing to millions.
Explicit e-mails with under-age male pages. Criminal lobbyists. Being on client lists for prostitution rings. FBI corruption investigations. And, now, soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. People are beginning to wonder: how low can Republican lawmakers go?
Working class residents of New Orleans responded with anger and protests to the visit paid by George W. Bush Wednesday on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a tragedy which led to the loss of more than 1,800 lives and massive devastation in the region. Bush administration neglect and indifference contributed to the deaths and mass suffering and continues to be responsible for the plight of countless thousands of present or former New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents. As nearly every media account admits, substantial sections of New Orleans remain in ruins.
The economic party is winding down and most working Americans never even got near the punch bowl. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that median household income rose 0.7% last year - it's 2nd annual increase in a row- to $48,201. The share of households living in poverty fell to 12.3% from 12.6% in 2005. This seems like welcome news, but a deeper look at the belated improvement in these numbers - more than 5 years after the end of the last recession - underscores how the gains from economic growth have failed to benefit most of the population. In 2006, 36.5 million Americans were living in poverty.
(GOV: Full census report [PDF])
[WAR: An article in yesterday's Dallas Morning News showed that Plano, Texas (where I live) is ranked #1 in median household income ($77,038) of cities with a 250,000+ population. I can see it everyday, but I sure as hell don't get to touch any of it!!]
How I wish that Christians who are outraged over the removal of a monument of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse would instead concern themselves with their own fealty to the commandments! If they did, these same conservative Christians would realize that they do indeed worship another god – one that they put on an equal footing with, if not above, the God of the Bible. That god, of course, is the US government; and the idol of many of these Christians is George W. Bush.
Large grocery and discount stores across the country have been targeted by a caller who threatens to blow up shoppers and workers with a bomb if employees fail to wire money to an account overseas, authorities said. Frightened workers have wired thousands of dollars - and in one case took off their clothes - to placate a caller who said he was watching them but may have been thousands of miles away.The FBI and police said Wednesday they are investigating similar bomb threats at more than 15 stores in at least 11 states - all in the past week.
With more than 62 years having passed since the Shoah, local and state lawmakers are working to give Holocaust education a boost. Congress mandates Holocaust education in grades K-12; science and math requirements to be dropped. New legislation would also replace arts and crafts in senior citizens' homes with workshops on Holocaust denial. The act would distribute $10 million – $2 million yearly for 5 years – in federal funding to establish these programs.
Since the late 1970s "Holocaust Remembrance" has become ever more important in the US US, America? What's behind the Holocaust remembrance campaign? Whose interests does it serve?
Global oil prices have soared after the US Energy Department reported a larger-than-expected decline in petrol and oil inventories.
The US justice department and other authorities have stepped up investigations into several large European banks for violating US sanctions against Iran, Libya, Cuba and Sudan.
One of the chief factors behind the credit crunch, which brought about the near seizure of financial markets earlier this month, was that it was virtually impossible to ascertain to what extent major banks and financial institutions were caught up in risky trades involving so-called subprime mortgage debt.
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