Do Catholics believe in one true God or not? That is a question asked by the coordinator of World Youth Day 2008 in the newsletter preparing pilgrims for the event in Australia. He said he "recently saw an article that accused World Youth Day of promoting idolatry! This critic said that the actions of people kneeling or bowing, touching or kissing, praying or weeping before the World Youth Day Cross were contrary to the First Commandment."
The president of the Italian bishops' conference has described Italy as "a country in a state of moral crisis." Archbishop Bagnasco defended the right of the Church to speak out on public issues involving the dignity of human life, and said that Church leaders have an obligation to provide moral guidance in a society that has drifted away from fundamental principles.
Germany's pacifist Greens are divided over whether to back the country's military mission in Afghanistan. Their infighting, weak leadership and gradual retreat from Realpolitik has cast doubt on the party's chances of returning to power.
In the run-up to the Dalai Lama's first visit to the German Chancellery, China has said it disapproves of politicians meeting with the Tibetan religious leader and called for Chancellor Merkel to cancel the encounter.
Germany is prepared to impose additional sanctions on Iran in the ongoing conflict over its nuclear program, Germany's Deputy Foreign Minister said in an interview.
There have been a series of reports recently in the American and British media over US plans for a military strike against Iran. For its part, the German press has refrained from any comment. This silence over the danger of a new US war with Iran is also being maintained by the German government and all the parties represented in the German parliament. What lies behind this silence on the part of the German media and government?
German press on...
It used to be that France would respond with a predictable "non" to any saber-rattling coming out of the US. Now, though, Paris seems eager to lead the way and has taken clear aim at Iran. The bellicosity is making German commentators nervous.
With only a month to go until final talks on a new EU treaty are supposed to be wrapped up, negotiations are progressing painfully - particularly in relation to Britain and its special status in several legislative areas.
Despite a lack of political appetite in several EU states, the European Commission is set to push ahead with the furthest-reaching reform of the bloc's energy sector yet. But just the very idea of unbundling is likely to get some EU states angry. So far, France and Germany have been among the staunchest opponents.
Turkey's Prime Minister refused Tuesday to rule out the possibility of military operations in northern Iraq to root out armed Kurdish separatist groups that he said had taken refuge in the border region. He also criticized some Western countries for what he called their increasingly hawkish stance against Iran.
President Ahmadinejad is to leave for New York on Sunday to address the UN General Assembly, despite calls in Washington for him to be banned from the gathering.
Psy-ops, or deluded?...
It is always difficult to spot the difference between bluster and genuine defiance. But Iran's response to the recent threats of war seems to mix real defiance with a degree, almost, of complacency. There is a firm belief here in Tehran that the US is simply not in a position to attack Iran.
The French Foreign Minister has sought to play down his remarks that the world should prepare for war against Iran. He did not want to appear to be a "warmonger," he said Tuesday as he headed to Moscow for talks.
Russia's Foreign Minister has expressed fears over the threat of war in Iran after talks with his French counterpart. "We are worried by reports that there is serious consideration being given to military action in Iran."
China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman strongly lambasted the anti-Iran statements made by France's Foreign Minister. "We should avoid threatening others with military actions. We are opposed to military actions in dealing with international affairs."
US intelligence sources warn that the British are pursuing a policy of "managed chaos" for all of Southwest Asia, and the British withdrawal of troops from Iraq will saddle the US with a further mess in Shi'ite-dominated southern Iraq.
While US aircraft carrier battle groups slip in and out of the Persian Gulf, a murky Israeli air attack on a site in the Syrian desert, combined with a bizarre and unlikely nuclear tale involving the North Koreans, has added a further touch of paranoia to the situation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scolded the UN's atomic watchdog agency over its Iran strategy and called for diplomacy with "teeth" to end Tehran's nuclear plans.
The Sept. 12 story on FoxNews.com entitled "US Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan," which claims that US diplomacy with Iran is a failure, and Vice President Cheney no longer has any opposition to his plan to bomb Iran, is a load of chicken poop. The second big scare story du jour—that Syria has nuclear weapons sites supplied by North Korea—is also a load of Fox-supplied chicken poop.
The US may not only try to destroy the Iranian army and put an end to the nuclear program of Teheran. It may also turn Iran into a test ground for up-to-date weapons.
This past week the subject of Iran seemed to be on everyone's lips. That the religious right has become bellicose, belligerent, and militaristic is difficult to deny. The tragedy is that prominent evangelicals such as John Hagee are at least partly responsible for helping to shape the current administration's utopian foreign policy and worldview. But perhaps the greatest irony of all is that those who were so sorely misled as to the reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq are the same people who are eager to accept the same flawed arguments for invading Iran. War based on false pretenses is never justified.
Behind the scenes at No. 10 Downing Street and at Westminster, the angst is every bit as deep as in Washington. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has decisions to make. British-American relations are at a crucial point.
Three decades of multi-culturalism have left Britain an unequal and segregated nation that is in danger of breaking up, race watchdogs say in a report published today. The Commission for Racial Equality fears the country is ''fracturing" and extremism is being fostered by the retreat of different groups behind their own ethnic walls.
Oil prices have reached fresh highs above $82 a barrel after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates.
In a desperate bid to prevent the crisis in credit and housing markets from sparking a recession, the US Federal Reserve Board has cut its base federal funds interest rate by half a percentage point. But the upsurge on Wall Street, which has put billions of dollars into the coffers of the major financial corporations—their shares were among the leaders of the rally—by no means signifies an end to the crisis that has gripped credit markets since August. On the contrary, the very volatility of the market is indicative of fundamental problems. Tuesday's rate cut will intensify the problems confronting the US economy rather than alleviating them.
(BBC: BOJ keeps rates on hold)
Wall Street raised a 300-point cheer to Ben Bernanke last night after he unexpectedly slashed US interest rates by half a percentage point rather than the quarter-point cut most investors expected. History will not treat the "Bernanke put" so kindly. Alan Greenspan spent 20 years putting off the day of reckoning by cutting the cost of money at the first whiff of trouble. Bernanke had the opportunity to signal a break with the past last night and he fluffed it. Fears that "Helicopter Ben" is just a chip off the old block look spot on.
(LR: Now Greenspan tells us!)
(IHT: Greenspan spins the bubble)
The Bank of England on Tuesday doubled the amount of emergency loans made available to British banks caught short in the global credit squeeze - curbing a surge in overnight borrowing costs but fueling criticism that the bank governor was reversing his own policy against bailouts.
President Chavez talked about taking measures to protect the country from a possible "global financial earthquake". "We aren't only talking about the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, the attempted coup in Venezuela, or other threats against the world, now it's the economic situation."
US mortgage crisis:
The announcement by the Mexican Central Bank went largely unnoticed internationally, and even inside Mexico, it barely caused a ripple. But it was a marker of the greatest significance for the Mexican and US economies, and in fact for the entire, imploding world system of globalization and free trade. "What is collapsing today, is not an economy, but a vast financial bubble, a bubble whose chief economic expression is the US financial system's role as 'The Importer of Last Resort' for the world at large."
The European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, spoke to Spiegel about foreign state-owned investment funds, the risks associated with hedge funds and his controversial private life.
Hundreds of people in Peru have needed treatment after an object from space - said to be a meteorite - plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say. They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes. People who visited the scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases.
Today in Scripture
"In the 6th year, in the 6th month on the 5th day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign YAHWEH came upon me there. ... He said to me, 'Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.' He then brought me into the inner court of the house of YAHWEH, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about 25 men. With their backs toward the temple of YAHWEH and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east. ..." (Ezekiel 8:1 ... 15,16 ...)
[WAR: The men were bowing down and acknowledging the supremacy of the sun - especially as it relates to the spring equinox and using it for setting the appointed times. And this is why YAHWEH cannot bear these evil assemblies - He hates them, and they have become a burden to Him (Isa 1:13,14).]
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