Spirit of antimessiah...
In Jesus, God assumed what he was not, while remaining what he was: "omnipotence entered an infant's body and did not cease to govern the universe." ... Christ - true God and true Man - responds with his Nativity.
With Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, with the Magi and the countless host of humble worshippers of the new-born Child, who down the centuries have welcomed the mystery of Christmas.
The Eternal Word of God became man. ... Saint Leo the Great, commenting on this mystery, said: "Human nature and divine nature were united in one person so that the Creator of time might be born in time..."
Rabbinic leaders and Temple Mount activist groups demanded the Israeli government allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. "We demand the Government of Israel allow the Jewish people to have freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount. This will serve as a preliminary step in confirming the Jewish people's inexorable connection with the Temple Mount, location of the Holy Temple, under the sovereignty of the people of Israel."
Well, duh!...
Meeting for the 2nd time this month as part of a new US-launched peace effort, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators bogged down again over familiar issues: proposed Israeli construction in areas the Palestinians claim for a future state and Israel's demand that the Palestinians crack down on armed groups.
The 2 sides have made no apparent progress since President Bush convened a peace conference last month in an effort to revive serious peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush is to visit the region in 2 weeks as part of his diplomatic pressure.
Palestinian National Authority President Abbas highly praised China's just and constructive role in the Middle East during a meeting here with visiting China's special envoy on the Middle East issue.
Turkish warplanes have again launched strikes on Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
Agents from MI6 entered secret talks with Taliban leaders despite Gordon Brown's pledge that Britain would not negotiate with terrorists, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Officers from the Secret Intelligence Service staged discussions, known as "jirgas", with senior insurgents on several occasions over the summer.
An intelligence source said: "The SIS officers were understood to have sought peace directly with the Taliban with them coming across as some sort of armed militia. The British would also provide 'mentoring' for the Taliban."
The US will expand its military presence in Pakistan in the New Year, under a new agreement negotiated last month, Pentagon sources say. The sources have said reaching a different agreement with Pakistan had become a priority for the new head of the US Special Operations Command. Analysts believe the move could indicate a new strategy devised by Washington aimed at using Pakistan as a launch pad for attacks against other nations in the region if need be.
A senior Iranian official says Russia will deliver the sophisticated S-300 air missile defense system to Iran, despite US opposition. The S-300 is a long range surface-to-air missile system that was developed as a defense system against aircraft and cruise missiles for the Soviet military.
The strengthening of ties between Tehran and Beijing would promote international security, President Ahmadinejad said as he received the credentials of the new Chinese ambassador to Tehran. He said the world is bracing for great changes and the global unipolar system is collapsing.
In the first year of the 110th Congress, Democratic lawmakers steadily challenged President Bush but failed to budge policy on Iraq. Their impact on other foreign policy issues was mixed.
The US is perceived by many as an international bully, a modern day imperial power. At this critical moment in history, BBC's Washington correspondent challenges that idea. He argues anti-Americanism is often a cover for hatreds with little justification in fact. His 3 part series takes him to Cairo, Caracas and Washington but it begins where anti-Americanism began - in Paris.
It's Christmas, a holiday that couldn't be better calibrated to expose the Republicans' rank, fetid hypocrisy. How is the party of "moral values" also the party of torture and xenophobia?
My concern isn't the rift that has opened between Republican political practice and the vision of the nation's Founders, who made very clear in the Constitution that there would be no religious test for officeholders in their enlightened new republic. Rather, it's the gap between the teachings of the Gospels and the preachings of the Gospel's Own Party that has widened past the point of absurdity, even as the ostensible Christianization of the party proceeds apace.
Richard Dawkins, the British scientist who has become the high priest of atheism, is launching a crusade in America to win new recruits to the church of nonbelievers.
Just last summer, analysts were predicting the subprime mortgage mess had been "contained," big bank CEOs were "dancing" over the liquidity flowing in credit markets and private-equity titans yearned in Soprano-like fashion to "kill off" the competition.
Times have changed. The housing and mortgage crisis has escalated into a full-fledged credit crunch, which now threatens to throw the economy into a recession. People and places far removed from this mess are finding themselves caught in the fallout. That's why 2007 is ending on a sour note.
A forecast made by Denmark-based Saxo Bank, chaos will take a grip on the world in 2008. Oil prices will skyrocket to $175 per barrel, the Chinese market will collapse by 40%, whereas the US will suffer a 25% setback. All this will happen because of the mortgage crisis in the US which already slows down the US economy.
Oil prices much depend on the political constituent. If the US launches a military action against Iran, oil prices will most likely jump up to $250 per barrel according to a recent forecast by Standard & Poor's.
More than 100 Muslim scholars have addressed warm Christmas greetings to Christians around the world, a message notable both for what it says and the fact that it was sent at all.
The greeting, sent by a group of 138 Sunni, Shiite, Sufi and other scholars who recently proposed a dialogue with Christian leaders, called for peace on Earth and thanked church leaders who have responded positively to their invitation.
Islam is a decentralized faith, with no pope or archbishop who can speak for believers as a group. Individual Muslim clerics previously have exchanged holiday greetings with Christians, but nothing on this scale has been done before.
Honestly, which describes your personal Xmas 2007?
In the trough between Christmas and the New Year, it is natural to look back over the past 12 months and to consider what the next 12 may bring.
Scientists still try to unravel the effect of placebo, when a sick person may recover from a serious disease by simply drinking a glass of water. Placebo is virtually a useless medication that is pharmaceutically inert but which may have a healing effect solely based on the power of suggestion. It has been scientifically proved that this "medication" may heal people, especially if a doctor tells a patient that it is the newest and the most effective medicine.
The way a father treats his daughter is a strong indicator of how she will relate to men for the rest of her life. "Research shows that a father's influence builds up self-esteem, helps his daughter to avoid sex, drugs, alcohol, and stay in college. What it is that a father offers is that he carries an authority in his daughter's eyes. This authority is not ascribed to the mother, not that she is not important, but a father's influence is different."
"When a girl is little, her dad is her primary male love relationship. When he gives her something as a man, she learns lessons about men, setting a template in those early years on her heart about what to expect, to think, to feel, and know about men from there on out, affecting even her relationship to God."
Use Orion's belt to find Aldebaran and Sirius
The World At Night is a new program that will produce and present a collection of stunning photographs of the world's most beautiful and historic sites against the nighttime backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events.
