Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Those working in the media have a moral duty to disseminate the truth, according to a Vatican spokesman. Too many times "the media seem to claim not simply to represent reality, but to determine it, owing to the power and the power of suggestion that they possess."
The Vatican spokesman continued, citing Benedict XVI's message: "This happens when the media are not used for 'the proper purpose of disseminating information, but to create events,' or at least to amplify their importance, to manipulate their correct interpretation, or impose particular interpretation for ideological purposes, economic and political interests or interests of any other sort."
Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats suffered sharp losses in Sunday's Hesse state election. The decline is a blow for Merkel and heralds a leftward shift in German politics that is likely to make it harder for her to govern.
In a separate election in the north-western state of Lower Saxony, CDU Premier Christian Wulff held on to power, but also saw his support fall from 5 years ago.
(DS: German press review)
(DW: German press review)
Germany shifted to the left in one bellwether state election, which saw the CDU under a conservative leadership drop 12% and has strengthened the combined forces of the left (Social Democrats, Greens, and Communists). The election has significant implications for the national politics.
The CDU's lost in Hesse largely because Koch fought an ultra-conservative law-and-order campaign. By contrast, in Lower Saxony, the leadership of the party is centrist, corporatist, politically almost indistinguishable from the SPD.
(Also: Merkel to lean left)
Chancellor Merkel faced tough questions today after her conservatives suffered heavy losses in a key state election. Federation of German Industry chief Juergen Thumann said he found the political trend troubling. "The shift to the left in Germany continues. We are watching current developments with the greatest concern."
(Also: Disaster for Merkel)
A far-right party in the Austrian state of Carinthia, led by the notorious right-wing politician Jörg Haider, is trying to ban the construction of mosques and minarets. They've presented a draft law designed to prohibit "unusual" buildings that don't fit in with traditional architecture. Meanwhile, in Germany, a planned mosque in Cologne has also been causing controversy.
The Munich Conference on Security Policy inarguably ranks among the top group of major political meetings. This year again, around 40 ministers and three presidents are expected to attend the conference, which takes place from 8–10 February. Altogether, 250 delegates from 50 countries will be coming to the Bavarian capital for the event. The general subject of the conference is "A World in Disarray – Shifting Powers – Lack of Strategies."
(Also: Interview with organizer)
The Belgian interim government may have silenced separatist rhetoric for now but the divisive problems have not gone away. The country's German-speaking minority is maintaining a low profile in the debate.
[Europress] / [Russopress]
The future of the Italian administration is now in the hands of the country's president, Giorgio Napolitano, who must choose between an interim government and calling immediate elections.
Senior allies of Gordon Brown are plotting to wreck Tony Blair's ambition to become the first permanent President of Europe. The Brown camp is determined to enlist high-powered support within the EU to prevent a Blair bandwagon, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, gathering pace.
This week the European Union capital opens with the highly-charged political issue of Serbia, with the 27-nation block set to fail to agree the best way to boost the country's pro-European course ahead of crucial presidential elections.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon today called on the EU to take over responsibility for the future of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.
A European peacekeeping force is to head to Chad and the Central African Republic, after it was approved by EU foreign ministers in Brussels. The 3,500-strong contingent will aim to protect refugees from Darfur and people displaced by internal fighting.
The mission which has been delayed several times is due to begin in the coming weeks under a UN mandate. French troops are already stationed in eastern Chad and a French brigadier general will take charge on the ground.
The EU's foreign ministers called on Israel today to halt all settlement activity in Palestinian areas, saying that it was illegal. "The EU considers that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal under international law. This includes Israeli settlements in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Settlement construction is an obstacle to peace. The EU is therefore deeply concerned by recent settlement activity."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak secretly met last week with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. They met in Paris and discussed the Iranian nuclear threat and the situation in the Middle East. Musharraf invited Barak for a meeting that focused on Iran's nuclear program and Israel's concerns that Pakistan's nuclear secrets might fall into the hands of extremist Islamist groups.
Iran on Sunday offered to help Egypt deal with growing chaos on its breached border with Gaza, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said. The offer came during a rare visit to Cairo by a top Iranian diplomat when he met with Egypt's Foreign Minister. Egypt and Iran have had no formal ties in nearly 3 decades, but government ministers from the countries have met frequently in the past 2 months.
Al Jazeera focus
Spanning 22 countries with 320 million people, the Arab world remains disunited.
Russia has delivered the 8th and final shipment of nuclear fuel early today for the operation of the Bushehr Power Plant in southern Iran.
The deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said on Sunday that his country has so far produced 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas used for uranium enrichment in the Isfahan nuclear facility.
Iran today warned the UN Security Council over issuing a new resolution against the Islamic state and said that this would lead to "serious reaction" by Tehran. "I recommend the UN Security Council to show restraint until the International Atomic Energy Agency report in March. If not, then Iran would show a serious and logical reaction," the foreign minister said.
Who is stealing our nuclear secrets – and why are they being shielded by the authorities?
The Israeli connection is what's interesting about this covert operation, because it involves US citizens, high government officials who have been part of an ongoing investigation that dates back to at least 1999. The lack of coverage of this amazing – and quite frightening – story in the US media is easily explained: anything having to do with the activities of Israeli intelligence in this country is sure to sink beneath the radar.
It is absolutely outrageous that not a single major news organization in the US has bothered to examine the charges made by Edmonds – especially when it is known that Islamist groups are still planning attacks on Western targets. Is it really time to consider moving to, say, a Pacific atoll and waiting out the catastrophe looming just down the road a bit?
"Your papers please" has long been a phrase associated with Hitler's Gestapo. People without the Third Reich's stamp of approval were hauled off to Nazi Germany's version of Halliburton detention centers. Today Americans are on the verge of being asked for their papers, although probably without the "please."
Thanks to a government that has turned its back on the US Constitution, Americans now have an unaccountable Department of Homeland Security that is already asserting tyrannical powers over US citizens and state governments.
Not content with spying on other countries, the National Security Agency will now turn on the US's own government agencies thanks to a fresh directive from President Bush. Under the new guidelines, the NSA and other intelligence agencies can bore into the internet networks of all their peers.
After a January 24 debate in the Senate on amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Senate appears ready to capitulate once again to the Bush administration's agenda of sacrificing liberty for questionable security.
Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont. The article asked the town attorney to "draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities."
Ideologues use times of crisis as an opportunity to foist their economic policies on desperate societies.
Over the last 4 years, I have been researching a little-explored area of economic history: the way that crises have paved the way for the march of the right-wing economic revolution across the globe. A crisis hits, panic spreads and the ideologues fill the breach, rapidly reengineering societies in the interests of large corporate players. It's a maneuver I call "disaster capitalism."
Every crisis is an opportunity; someone will exploit it. The question we face is this: Will the current turmoil become an excuse to transfer yet more public wealth into private hands, to wipe out the last vestiges of the welfare state, all in the name of economic growth? Or will this latest failure of unfettered markets be the catalyst that is needed to revive a spirit of public interest, to get serious about the pressing crises of our time, from gaping inequality to global warming to failing infrastructure? The disaster capitalists have held the reins for 3 decades.
Local governments are scrambling to deal with the rising number of foreclosures that strain city services and soon may take a toll on property-tax revenue. Stemming foreclosures and managing vacant properties so that years of economic development doesn't unravel was a priority as the nation's mayors gathered in Washington last week.
Persistent fears about the world economy battered global stocks again today and drove investors toward safer assets.
Four German state banks have a combined exposure of almost $117.2 billion to risky assets. Germany's Landesbanks are financial institutions owned by regional government and local community savings banks.
The recession facing the US is of a scale that dwarfs the dotcom slump. The slowdown will cause a damaging regulation backlash as governments attempt to compensate for the financial pain facing families.
Taken together, the attacks on FDR share one major goal: To privatize what is left of the New Deal and undermine its programs to help the poor and unlucky of the United States navigate their way into the middle class.
The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), more commonly known by its portmanteau nickname Fannie Mae, is one such government entity created by the New Deal, initially to inject liquidity -- or cold, hard cash -- into the mortgage market. That is, until 1968, when it was converted into a private corporation that ceased to guarantee loans made by the government. Since then, it has existed in a nebulous state otherwise known as a government-sponsored entity (GSE).
The GSEs are neck-deep in the housing meltdown and sinking fast. As of last report, Fannie and Freddie were holding upwards of $4.8 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. And because many of those securities are built up of nothing more than debt, one could argue that they're holding onto a whole lot of nothing at all.
The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, urged his Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from US banks, warning of a looming US economic crisis. He made the suggestion as he hosted a summit aimed at increasing Latin American integration and countering US influence. Chávez warned that US "imperialism is entering into a crisis that can affect all of us" and said Latin America "will save itself alone."
A sea change in the consumption of a resource that people take for granted may be in store: something cheap, plentiful, widely enjoyed and a part of daily life. And it isn't oil. It's meat.
Global demand for meat has multiplied in recent years, encouraged by growing affluence and nourished by the proliferation of huge, confined animal feeding operations. These assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the world's tropical rain forests.
Growing meat uses so many resources that it is a challenge to enumerate them all. But consider: An estimated 30% of the earth's ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases - more than transportation does. Grain, meat and even energy are roped together in a way that could have dire results.
Daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes, research suggests.
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