Pope Benedict has addressed a rally of tens of thousands of protesters in Madrid via videolink, speaking in defence of family values which the Catholic Church says have been undermined by Spain's socialist Government.
Chancellor Merkel said the economy and economic growth face 'big' risks at the start of 2008, especially through global influences. "Despite all our successes, we may under no circumstances lean back now," she said according to a prepared copy of a speech she is to hold in Berlin.
Germany's Social Democrats plan to put their demand for a universal minimum wage at the top of their campaign agenda for key regional polls in 2008. The issue is set to dominate the political debate early next year.
Economy Minister Michael Glos of the Christian Social Union warned that a minimum wage would lead companies to cut back on legitimate staff and force workers to take illegal jobs. "Production and services would move abroad."
President Köhler has said expellee groups should be included in plans for a memorial in Berlin, opposed by Poland, to recall the sufferings of ethnic Germans forced out of Eastern Europe at the end of the war.
In the Chinese zodiac calendar, 2008 is the Year of the Rat. In the EU, 2008 is shaping up to be the year of the French. France's 6-month EU presidency, its first since 2000, will not begin until July 1. But already the bloc's other 26 member states are anticipating France's occupation of the hot seat with uncommon excitement. "The French presidency will be highly ambitious. Budget reform, agriculture, trade, energy security, climate change, immigration, defence - you name it, as long as there's something to be done, the French will do it."
Sarkozy's message of an ambitious state-guided modernisation that protects the European "social model" appears to have caught the emerging spirit of the age. "The Anglo-Saxon model that was dominant a year ago is being pushed aside by the Rhineland model and Club Med," says one EU ambassador, referring to 2 versions of capitalism traditionally practised by France, Germany and southern European countries.
Cyprus and Malta will tomorrow embrace the euro, boosting Europe's monetary union to 15 states and adding another 2 Club Med votes to the policy board of the European Central Bank. The 2 islands make up just 0.3% of eurozone GDP and barely flicker on the radar screen of the 320m-strong currency bloc. Yet their arrival marks a crucial stage in the declining dominance of the German Bundesbank.
The Latin and Hellenic cluster of states now has a majority of the votes on the governing council for the first time, with 11 of the 21 members. While they hold a variety of views - and are in principle obliged to disregard their own national interest when they set foot inside the Eurotower - they share an economic culture that is often far removed from the German way of life.
As the economic rift between the eurozone's North and South grows ever wider, the thorny question of which camp holds the majority of votes is likely to come into starker focus. What worries officials in Frankfurt is that the newcomers will tend to side with Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Ireland should deflating property booms across the region prompt demands for a looser monetary policy.
"Tensions are likely to grow. If you get sharp slowdowns in the peripheral economies, they are going to want rate cuts. It could lead to much more heated discussions." "The new Cypriot bank governor is going to bring a Fed-style framework to the ECB; the old Bundesbank perspective is progressively losing influence."
A clutch of American-educated ECB board members from Italy, Spain and Greece is now taking over the key levers of power in Europe's monetary system. The Bundesbank lockhold was broken 2 years ago with the retirement of Otmar Issing, the doyen of German monetarism who held unchallenged mastery of the ECB as both chief economist and head of the research apparatus.
Israel said it was taking the threats of Osama bin Laden seriously, a day after the Al-Qaida leader vowed to expand his terror group's holy war to Israel. Most of the 56-minute audiotape tape released dealt with Iraq, but bin Laden also offered an unusually direct attack on Israel.
"Israel takes bin Laden's threats seriously. We have seen Al-Qaida activity to the north of Israel, in Lebanon, to the east of Israel, in Jordan, and to the south of Israel, in Sinai. There is also evidence of Al-Qaida activities in the Palestinian territories. As a result, we will be irresponsible not to take this rhetoric seriously."
Syria's president is ready for peace with Israel, Sen. Arlen Specter said after talks with the leader. Specter said it would be essential that Israel return the disputed Golan Heights region to Syria.
(Also: France to boycott Syria)
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has created conditions which contribute to the ongoing destabilization and fragmentation of Pakistan as a Nation. And there are indications that the assassination of Bhutto was anticipated by US officials. The involvement of either Al Qaeda and/or the ISI would suggest that US intelligence was cognizant and/or implicated in the assassination plot.
(Also: Après l'assassinat de Benazir Bhutto, l'administration Bush se rue à la défense de Moucharraf) ;-)
What General Musharraf didn't know then is that he really was being cornered. Some of the smiles that greeted him in Washington and back home gave no hint of the betrayal that awaited him. As he completed the remaining part of his US visit, his allies in Washington and elsewhere, as all evidence suggests now, were plotting his downfall.
(Also: Panic over Pakistan)
(Also: Cartoon: Bush 'n Mush)
(Also: Cartoon: Recipe for disaster)
A joint offensive is under way between Chadian forces and rebels in Sudan's region of Darfur, Sudanese diplomatic sources say. A number of towns and villages in Western Darfur have been under attack from the combined force. Sudan's government has complained to the UN Security Council, describing the Chadian attack as unprecedented.
Iran's Army Commander announced the country's full air, naval, and ground forces' preparedness to respond to any likely threats. "The army's air defense is so strong that can target any kind of enemy fighter jets easily."
IRIB Vice-President says Iran's international English news channel Press TV has attracted a large viewership across the world. He said Press TV is fast finding its place among the world media, with many viewers turning to the channel as a reliable news outlet. "It has been only 5 months since Press TV was launched. The absence of such a news channel had been conspicuous among other media. It was high time the media monopoly broke and Iran sent a message to the world."
Gordon Brown has warned of a tough year ahead as he issued a bleak assessment of the effect the global financial downturn will have on the British economy. In a sobering New Year message, the Prime Minister predicted growth would slow in 2008 as the credit crisis continued to cause "financial turbulence" around the world.
If the last days of 2007 are any indication, U.S. President George W. Bush's last year in office is shaping up as grim and lonely. Grim, because Bush's signature "war on terror" is nowhere near the kind of "victory" on which he had placed so much hope. Grim, because the economic news – which has generally remained upbeat over Bush's tenure – has turned decidedly negative in recent months. The prospect of a failed, nuclear-armed Pakistan makes even Iraq – not to mention a uranium-enrichment program in Iran – look benign. It could be a rough final year.
In the Pentagon's newly expanded Special Operations office, Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers is working to implement the US military's highest-priority plan: a global campaign against terrorism that reaches far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
The plan details the targeting of al-Qaida-affiliated networks around the world and explores how the US should retaliate in case of another major terrorist attack. The most critical aspect of the plan, Vickers said in a recent interview, involves US Special Operations forces working through foreign partners to uproot and fight terrorist groups.
Vickers' job also spans the modernization of nuclear forces for deterrence and retaliation, and the retooling of conventional forces to combat terrorism, a portfolio so expansive that he and some Pentagon officials once jokingly referred to his efforts as the "take-over-the-world plan."
Vickers' plan is focused on a list of 20 "high-priority" countries, with Pakistan posing a central preoccupation for Vickers, who said al-Qaida sanctuaries in the country's western tribal areas are a serious threat to the US. The list also includes Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Yemen, Somalia and Iran, and Vickers hinted that some European countries could be on it. Beyond that, the plan covers 29 additional "priority" countries, and "other countries" he did not name.
Have you ever questioned why so many "politicians" frequently use the declaration: "God Bless America?" You see, every evil that befell the state was attributed to the "gods" not having been honored in the proper way, or being neglected by the head of state. The lesson of history is clear. If you want to stop war then starve the state, the military and their accompanying religious priesthoods.
Although the left will surely react to it with its customary hysteria, "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning" is not a polemic in the style made fashionable by Ann Coulter and Al Franken.
Unlike most of his maleducated peers in the media, Goldberg rejects the historically ignorant view still dominant in American pop culture that perceives Fascism and National Socialism as right-wing political phenomena. He correctly identifies both revolutionary ideologies as being inherently of the political left; more importantly, he provides substantial documentary evidence proving his case beyond any rational doubt.
If the left and right agree on almost nothing else, we agree at least on this: America's in terrible shape. Such shocking shape that - how did we come to this? - it might not actually survive. How did we come to this? It's the '70s' fault, writes Thomas Hine in The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming Together (on a Shag Rug) in the Seventies, a richly if incriminatingly illustrated book about a traumatic "slum of a decade" in which "the country was running out of promise."
Crude oil rose in London as Iran plans to start its first nuclear reactor next year heightened the risk of confrontation with the US. Uncertainty about the political situation in nuclear-armed Pakistan after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto added to concerns. "Geopolitical risks from Iran's announcement on its nuclear program and the tension in Pakistan, are keeping everyone on their toes right now and supporting the market against another slide."
Gulf Arab oil producers may be less likely to drop their currency pegs to the weak US dollar after Osama bin Laden criticized dollar pegs as "unjust and arbitrary", economists said. He urged Muslims in a video recording on Saturday to support militants so they can "preserve your oil and wealth and protect your money that is slipping between your fingers due to the unjust and arbitrary dollar pegs."
Losses arising from America's housing recession could triple over the next few years and they represent the greatest threat to growth in the US, one of the world's leading economists has told The Times. The Professor of Economics at Yale University predicted that there was a very real possibility that the US would be plunged into a Japan-style slump, with house prices declining for years.
During the holiday shopping season, Americans bought fewer gifts while paying more for necessities. That's bad news for an economy that is dependent on free-spending shoppers. When consumers pull back, the economy slows. Employers respond by delaying hiring plans, reducing work hours and, if problems persist, laying off workers. Once a downturn starts, it is always hard to reverse.
Our country is in serious economic peril. Our service based economy (a great experiment) has begun to fail. The dollar is falling lower and lower, and our housing market is crashing. The construction industry has slowed to a standstill, but yet there is little unemployment. This makes no sense at all. The numbers are scewed.
Of my 10 closest friends, 8 are currently unemployed and do not show up on the statistics. Why? Because they are small business owners. My sister and her husband also are unemployed. My mom and stepdad are also small business owners. They haven't worked in 3 months. I am also a small business owner. My sales are down 90%.
This isn't just a local event either, it's all over. Small businesses are closing down at an alaming rate. President Bush himself said that small businesses are the lifeblood of America. If that's true, the arteries of the nation have become clogged with recession.
Food prices worldwide hit record highs in 2007, and all the signs are that they will go on rising in 2008, and for the foreseeable future. The era of cheap food, the experts say, is over and we are going to have to get used to it. This is easier said than done for millions around the world, as evidenced by protests in Mexico over the cost of corn tortillas, and in Italy last September about the price of (wheat) pasta.
I'm having my house and body "cleared" for 2008, whatever that means. I'm more of a believer in mystery than mysticism. But I know for sure that New Year's resolutions require too much discipline. An exorcism seems much easier.
The rankings released by the website YouTube.com, which allows users to post mainly homemade video clips, not only took into account those that were most watched but also those were most shared and discussed.
Mithraism was a universal religion in the ancient world with pillars founded on the Kingdom of God on earth and the brotherhood of man. Many scholars of religion believe that the religion of Mithra was absorbed into Christianity and that the new religion was modeled after the ancient one. Whether Mithra was a Persian divinity or an actual historical figure the fact remains that the religion ascribed to him has greatly influenced religious thought in the world.
Today in Scripture
"And on the 20th day of the 9th month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain..." (Ezra 10:9-16 first sentence)
Sirius: Torchbearer of the new year.
There are lots of celestial lights adorning the nighttime as the clock ticks toward the midnight hour, bringing in the New Year. For starters, there's Orion, the gem of all constellations. No less a fixture than the tolling bells that ring in the New Year, Sirius is truly the star of the hour. Sirius celebrates its favorite holiday by reaching its highest point in the sky at the stroke of midnight.
[WAR: "Orion the gem"? As stated in Orion: The Stargate: "In The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop identified Tammuz as Nimrod, who was deified as the constellation of Orion: 'From Persian records we are expressly assured that it was Nimrod who was deified after his death by the name of Orion, and placed among the stars.'" And also check out: Ah, Osiria! Part 3: Nimrod Hunting.]
