A new study commissioned by Germany's Interior Ministry warns of a growing threat from the radicalization of Muslims in the country. Six percent of Muslims in Germany support violence in the name of Islam, the authors write.
Reacting to the study, Christine Haderthauer, general secretary of the conservative Bavarian party the Christian Social Union, said that her party "has always warned against the dangers of parallel societies. Our fears have been confirmed in a shocking manner." She said that Germany needs "an offensive to promote religious tolerance among young Muslims."
The number of European countries doing away with border checks expanded by 9 early this morning. Most of those joined were behind the Iron Curtain just 20 years ago.
"This is an especially beautiful moment," said Chancellor Merkel at a ceremony at the German border with Poland and the Czech Republic. "It is a source of great pleasure that coming generations will experience open borders as the European normalcy."
France, Italy and Spain united behind a planned Mediterranean Union on Thursday, announcing a July summit in Paris of the countries bordering the sea.
"Convinced that the Mediterranean, crucible of culture and civilisation, should resume its role as a zone of peace, prosperity and tolerance," the 3 leaders said they had met to "think about the broad outlines of a planned union for the Mediterranean."
The bloc "would have a mission to reunite Europe and Africa around the countries along the Mediterranean rim and to set up a partnership on an equal footing between the countries" north and south of the sea.
It's been a lot of hard work, but President Putin has finally achieved his goal. He's the man who rebuilt Russia. The last thing he wants now, is a pointless confrontation with the US. But how can it be avoided? He understands Washington's long-range plans for Russia and he is taking necessary steps to preempt them.
The US is moving into the neighborhood and has no intention of leaving. The war on terror is a fraud; it merely conceals the fact that Bush is sprinkling military bases throughout Central Asia and surrounding Russia in the process.
To great extent, the American people have no idea of the reckless policy that is being carried out in their name. The gravity of the proposed Missile Defense system has been virtually ignored by the media and Russia's protests have been dismissed as trivial.
But hostilities are steadily growing, military forces and weaponry are being put into place, and the stage is set for a major conflagration. This is every bit as serious as the Cuban Missile Crisis, only this time Russia cannot afford to stand down. Putin will not allow the system to be deployed even if he has to remove it through force of arms. It is a direct threat to Russia's national security.
President Putin secured a deal to start building a natural-gas pipeline to Central Asia, undermining a US-backed plan to give the region an alternative route bypassing Russia. The agreement to construct the new pipeline from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was signed at a Kremlin ceremony on Thursday.
Foreign ministers are busy people - especially energetic, creative diplomats like Russia's Lavrov and Iran's Mottaki, representing capitals that by tradition place great store on international diplomacy.
Therefore, the very fact that Lavrov and Mottaki have met no less than 4 times in as many months suggests a great deal about the high importance attached by the 2 capitals to their mutual understanding at the bilateral and regional level.
How Moscow proceeds with the reconfiguration of Russo-Iranian relations could well form the centerpiece of the geopolitics of energy security in Eurasia during 2008.
The dynamics on this front will doubtless play out on a vast theater stretching well beyond the Eurasian space, all the way to China and Japan in the east and to the very heart of Europe in the west where the Rhine River flows.
Israeli officials said they were surprised when President Bush turned down a request to address Israel's Knesset during a visit here next month, his first trip to the Jewish state as US president. Traditionally, visiting US presidents have addressed the Knesset.
Political sources in Jerusalem, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity for fear of starting a diplomatic crisis, said Olmert's office was "surprised" by the decline. "It's a slap in the face. Even Sadat, who once said he'd destroy Israel, addressed the Knesset when he visited Jerusalem."
The attempts by a Zionist organization to persuade Iranian Jews to leave the country and receive $10,000 in return have failed. According to a report by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, of some 25,000 Jews living in Iran, only 125 accepted the money during the course of the 1-year project.
Iran's Jewish community leaders denounced the IFCJ attempts in a statement saying "Iranian Jews will not abandon their identity for any amount of money. We love our Iranian identity and culture, so threats and enticements would not persuade Iranian Jews to give up their identity."
Iran is home to the 2nd-largest Jewish community in the Middle East.
"I came back from a trip to Israel in November convinced that Israel would attack Iran," a former career CIA official and senior adviser to 3 US presidents - including George W. Bush - on Middle East and South Asian issues, told Newsweek - citing conversations he had with Mossad and Israeli defense officials. "And that was before the National Intelligence Estimate. This makes it even more likely. Israel is not going to allow its nuclear monopoly to be threatened."
The chairman of Iran's Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Rafsanjani has called on the West to change its behavior towards Iran. The senior cleric warned that The West's hostile approach to Iran is of no use and it would only undermine the spirit of amity in the world. "US policies have backfired in Afghanistan and Iraq; Washington should know that Iran would be a more difficult challenge for it."
The Democratic-controlled US Congress ended its first year in office Wednesday with a record of capitulation to the policies of the Bush administration all down the line. The Democrats have proven to be Bush's collaborators, not his opponents.
The Democratic Party, like the Republican, is an instrument of the American ruling elite which upholds the interests of American imperialism. While there are, and remain, sharp divisions within the ruling elite over the Bush administration's foreign policy, which is widely regarded as both incompetent and reckless, these are divisions over tactics and methods, not principle.
Conservatives are strange and fascinating creatures. Their minds operate in a strange, Bizarro-like universe in which delusion and deception seem to be considered normal.
One of the strangest aspects of Bizarro-land is how conservatives conflate the federal government and America. In their minds, the government and the country are one and the same. Thus, when O'Reilly hears someone's criticism of the federal government's occupation of Iraq, that is all the proof he needs that the person hates America.
Never mind that the federal government and the private sector are composed of 2 different groups of people, a fact recognized by the Bill of Rights, which expressly protects the private sector from the federal government. That's a reality that is best left ignored in the conservative mind.
What the outside world hopes for from the next president of the United States.
Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 4.7% since the beginning of the year through November, outpacing the 4.3% increase in the overall cost-of-living, according to the federal government's Consumer Price Index. Everyday foods like fruits and vegetables, beef, poultry and cereals are on the rise. "A lot of basic foodstuffs seem to be going up and dairy products are going through the roof."
Record numbers of private investors cashed in their stock market investments last month, providing further evidence that the credit crunch is beginning to hurt consumers.
According to the Investment Management Association, November saw net outflows for the first time since its records began in July 1992. More than £600m was withdrawn from equity funds, while investors continued to run from commercial property funds, with £253m withdrawn.
The US Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday proposed new regulations on subprime home loans that would ban or limit some of the most egregious predatory lending practices, while leaving undisturbed many others. Most significantly, the proposals shield US banks from any liability for their role in profiting from the victimization of home buyers and creating the housing bubble that has now imploded.
The measures proposed by the Fed will do nothing to help the victims of past predatory lending practices or those falling behind in their payments and facing foreclosure. They are tailored to shore up the banking system and preempt tougher measures against lenders, mortgage servicers and banks that have been introduced in Congress.
Most significantly, the Fed's proposals would assign no liability to Wall Street firms for effectively underwriting predatory subprime loans. The major banks were the biggest players in the subprime mortgage boom.
The Federal Reserve, working to combat the effects of a severe credit crunch, announced today it had auctioned another $20 billion in funds to commercial banks at an interest rate of 4.67%. The central bank said it had received bids for $57.7 billion worth of loans, nearly 3 times the amount being offered, indicating continued strong interest in the Fed's new approach to providing money to cash-strapped banks.
Half a trillion dollars in loans by Europe's central bank may stabilize markets, but many think averting recession will require a rate cut. The size of the 2-week loans, the ECB's largest-ever infusion, took the market by surprise. "The ECB has tried a shock-and-awe approach to stabilizing the money markets."
The Taj Mahal, one of the world's architectural masterpieces, welcomes about 2.5 million visitors each year - provided they don't try to buy tickets with dollars. India's most popular shrine announced in November that it would stop accepting the US currency and take only rupees, hurling yet another insult at the once mighty greenback.
Economists say the currency, which has declined in 5 of the past 6 years against the euro, is caught in a downdraft as investors pour into Asia, prompting a tectonic shift in economic power from the US.
Everyone knows the US economy is teetering on the edge of recession in the next year, but no one knows if it will tip. Today nobody can not say for sure whether the troubles in the housing market and financial markets spill over enough to halt the economic growth in 2008. The following are 5 warning signs...
The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.
A review of evidence by US researchers surrounding 7 commonly-hold beliefs suggests they are actually "medical myths". Some are utterly untrue, while others have no evidential proof, the British Medical Journal reports.
A massive asteroid may slam into Mars at the end of January of 2008. The size of the asteroid can be compared to that of the notorious Tunguska meteorite, US scientists say. Asteroid 2007 WD5 is expected to hit Mars on January 30, 2008 with odds of impact at 1 in 75.
Eid al-Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice is considered as one of the most important Islamic festivals. The holiday marks the Prophet Abraham's willingness to obey God's command by sacrificing his son, Ismail. Eid al-Adha takes place on the 10th day of the lunar month of Dhul Hijjah of the Islamic calendar.
Each year, at the end of the Hajj pilgrimage, Muslims throughout the world commemorate Abraham's strong faith in God. They re-enact the sacrifice by slaughtering an animal, such as a sheep, camel, or goat.
(Also: The spirit of Eid al-Adha)
The instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane as the observer, is the winter solstice. The word solstice derives from Latin sol (Sun) and sistere (stand still).
Though the Winter Solstice lasts an instant, the term is also used to refer to the full day and night (24hrs) within which the event occurs. A more accurate usage might be the "day of the winter solstice" or the "night of/before the winter solstice".
Winter Solstice is a controversial subject, since it is sometimes said to astronomically mark the beginning or middle of a hemisphere's Winter and so there is much argument about when it starts. Winter is a subjective term, so there is no scientifically established beginning or middle of winter but Winter Solstice is clearly defined. In most countries, the time of the winter solstice is considered as midwinter.
Worldwide, interpretation of the event varies from culture to culture, but most hold a recognition of rebirth, involving festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations. Many cultures celebrate or celebrated a holiday near the winter solstice; examples of these include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Pongal, Yalda and many other festivals of light.
What?!!...
We're all familiar with the Christmas story – Bethlehem, the virgin birth, God in human flesh laying in a manger, a Savior for mankind. Yet what most people, even a great many Christians, don't realize is that the Christmas story was first proclaimed to the world not by the Gospel writers of the New Testament but by the prophets of the Old Testament. Hundreds of years before Christ's incarnation, these prophets of God foretold specific details about the life of the promised future Messiah.
In declaring that the One to come would be called Immanuel, which is literally translated "God with us," Isaiah was also foretelling that this Child would be God in human flesh.
He often identified Himself as the great I AM, the One who always has existed and always will. Indeed, when He was questioned about Abraham, who lived some 2,000 years earlier, Jesus replied: "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). When He said that, the religious leaders in the crowd immediately began picking up rocks to stone Him to death for blasphemy, proving they knew exactly what He was saying. He was claiming to be God.
(Also: Non-PC Xmas carols!)
[WAR: No, Yahshua was not "God in human flesh" or "incarnated", nor did he claim to be "God" (at that time) in John 8:58. The correct translation should be: "Before Abraham was, I was/existed." Yahweh emptied Himself completely (100%) and quit being Elohim - and became a 100% mortal human being, subject to temptation and death.]
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