Cardinal Kasper led a high-level Vatican delegation to Istanbul to join Patriarch Bartholomew I in celebrating the feast of St. Andrew, the patron of the Constantinople see, on November 30. Following what has become an annual tradition, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity brought the greetings of the Pope to the Constantinople patriarchate.
The Pope (via a message) said that ecumenical work is "according to the will of Christ our Lord." In light of the problems facing the contemporary world, he said, that work is "all the more urgent because of the many challenges facing all Christians, to which we need to respond with a united voice and with conviction.
As is known, it is not the place of the Holy See to enter into issues which are strictly political and neither does it wish to do so. However, the Holy See would like to encourage those around this table to continue to work for peace and justice, to implement the commitments that they have undertaken and not to violate the legitimate interests and just expectations of other participating states.
What I would like to stress the most is that, in the opinion of the Holy See, the vocation of the OSCE is to create an area of freedom and the rule of law. In order to achieve this end, the organisation must ceaselessly promote the dignity of the human person and defend the intrinsic rights and values of all men and women.
On Monday, the Holy See and the Republic of Albania signed an agreement concerning certain economic and fiscal matters. The agreement comes in the wake of the accord between the two countries concluded in 2002, and creates a juridical framework for the fiscal treatment of ecclesiastical institutions recognized as non-profit juridical entities. In particular, it regulates the fiscal status of Catholic Church organizations in Albania, the economic administration of such structures, and the contributory- insurance scheme for the non-Albanian religious and lay personnel who serve in them."
Israeli's ambassador to the Holy See has said that his country is very close to concluding a long-awaited economic and juridical agreement with the Holy See. He told an audience in Rome that about 85% of the agreement has been completed, the ANSA news agency in Rome reports. He said that the remaining portions could be wrapped up quickly, with a new negotiating session scheduled for December 13.
Six months after parliamentary elections, Belgium remains without a government. Outgoing Prime Minister Verhofstadt has launched mediation talks with the country's main parties after Belgian King Albert approached him for help.
The European Commission said on Tuesday that the EU should seek negotiations with Turkey on membership to the 27-nation bloc, despite comments by Chancellor Merkel to the contrary.
Serbia should organise protests and military exercises to warn Kosovo and its Western backers it will not tolerate a declaration of independence by the breakaway province, a Serb Orthodox Church leader said. "We should organise military exercises in areas close to Kosovo and we should organise massive demonstrations in Belgrade and other cities so everybody realises how important Kosovo is to Serbia."
The EU was up in arms on Tuesday after President Sarkozy called President Putin to congratulate him on Sunday's elections. Most of the EU has been at odds with Putin.
The threat of another, bloodier war remains real and present. Its source lies not in a non-existent Iranian nuclear weapons program, but in mounting inter-imperialist conflicts and, above all, the predatory drive by American capitalism to offset its economic decline by utilizing military force. Washington remains determined to assert its hegemony over the vast energy resources of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. It has launched 2 wars in the last 6 years to realize this goal, and there is every reason to believe that it is still preparing a 3rd.
The link between a threatened US attack on Iran and the potential for WW3 is based not on the alleged spread of nuclear weapons, but rather the increasing tensions generated by the US attempts to establish a stranglehold over a region upon which its principal economic rivals—Western Europe, China and Japan—depend for energy resources.
(Also: Played for fools yet again)
Analysis...
Until Monday, 2008 seemed to be a year destined to be consumed, at least when it comes to foreign policy, by the prospects of confrontation with Iran.
(Also: US military & Iran - part 1)
Yes...
On the Great Seal of the United States, first suggested by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, there was to be emblazoned a new motto: "E Pluribus Unum" – "Out of many, one." It was in their unity, not their diversity, that the strength of the colonies resided. National identity must supersede state identity for America to survive.
Our racial diversity has ever been the most divisive issue in America – and remains so, as we see daily from Jena, the Imus affair and the Duke rape case. This generation is witnessing the Deconstruction of America. Out of one, many.
There is growing recognition that economic activity is a means to the end of human wellbeing rather than an end in itself. The economy should be the servant of society, rather than society the servant of the economy.
Merrill Lynch says it has moved "beyond decoupling" to "rebalancing", changing the terminology but leaving the message unchanged: America's headed for its first recession in 16 years but the rest of the world, fingers crossed, will be just fine.
For some big American exporters, this shift in the economic world's centre of gravity creates an enormous opportunity, while for non-US companies exposed to the horrors of Uncle Sam's slump, the outlook is grim - ask Wolseley.
On Nov. 13, I wrote that the US dollar was being pummeled by a perfect storm. Just 3 weeks later, the storm is even stronger. The force of the winds punishing the dollar is building, and there's a real danger that the currency will tumble out of control. With US interest rates on hold or headed lower, the result would be another big boost to the euro, another hit to the dollar, a continued move away from the US dollar by central banks in Asia, Russia and the Middle East, and higher prices for gold and, more importantly, oil. With the global economy and financial markets are so precariously balanced, any increase in wind velocity can cause massive damage.
European policy makers this week hardened their tone on the decline of the dollar, as economists trimmed their growth forecasts for the 13-nation euro area and major manufacturers like Airbus threatened to move factories overseas.
On Tuesday, a senior French official said there was now a consensus among EU finance ministers and central bankers about the need for the Group of 7 to address the dollar's slide more explicitly, after a joint statement in October focused on the yuan, China's currency.
A day earlier, Germany's finance minister dropped his characteristic reference to his "love" for the strong euro and predicted that the declaration of a coming G-7 meeting might be more stringent over the dollar.
The Italian finance minister suggested that the dollar had now fallen far enough for the US Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson Jr., to agree that foreign exchange rate movements have been extreme.
Momentum is building for the creation of an EU-wide "Super Regulator" to oversee financial markets and clamp down on short-term speculators. This could emasculate the Financial Services Authority and bring the City under the direct control of Brussels for the first time. The European Commission as well as key EU finance ministers and leading politicians have seized on failings exposed by the credit crunch to press for a pan-European gendarme to police the banking system and cross-border flows of capital.
Ben Bernanke is an academic. He possesses the biases of almost all academics. He trusts formal education to solve the problems of society. This mindset leads him to trust the Federal Reserve's press releases, which all rest on a single assumption: the superior wisdom of a committee of salaried academics to set the federal funds rate, rather than let bankers decide what overnight rate to charge other banks.
German press...
Venezuelans have voted by a paper-thin majority against President Chavez's plans to stay in power for life. His defeat in Sunday's referendum may compel him to listen more closely to the people, but some German commentators fear he may not be prepared to go quite so easily.
Darwin Awards are widely known nowadays. They are awarded to those who lose their life in the most idiotic way possible and thus, thankfully remove themselves from the gene pool of humanity. Every year the world comes to know about new Darwin Award winners from glossy magazines and entertaining websites. But only few people know that most so-called 'winners' have never existed. A considerable part of all these stories is just a figment of the imagination, modern folklore, so to speak.
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