Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
A Muslim scholar who participated in recent Vatican talks to improve Catholic-Muslim relations yesterday criticised Pope Benedict XVI's baptism of a convert from Islam as a "provocative act".
Good for them!...
Saudi Arabia's royal family has decided against building a Catholic church in the kingdom.
[WAR: Why mess with a Whore when you have 70 virgins waiting for you?]
Failing to do my job?...
On Tuesday the Knights of Columbus published the results of a survey they commissioned on American's opinions about the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI and their hopes for the papal visit to the US in April.
The survey results show that Americans have a generally positive opinion of the Pope and the Catholic Church: 58% have a "favorable" or "very favorable" opinion of Benedict XVI, 13% have an "unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" opinion of the Pope, and 17% claim to have never heard of the Pope.
A new book by the head of the Knights of Columbus explores the themes the Pope is likely to address in his April visit to the US and provides a practical guide for Catholics to change the culture for the good.
Spiegel talks to the president of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, about the risk of attack by Islamist terrorists in Germany, how German Muslims are training in camps in Afghanistan and the risk from al-Qaida in North Africa.
[Europress] [Russopress]
Syria, Russia and Kosovo are set to dominate the agenda on Friday when the European Union's foreign ministers hold an informal meeting in Slovenia.
Tensions continue on the streets of Mitrovica a week after rioting Serbs clashed with police and NATO troops in the town on Kosovo's northern border. DW-World talked to a Balkans expert about the latest developments.
Kosovo may now be an independent state, but Europe's youngest country remains a trouble spot. The Serbian minority is arming itself, violence has erupted, and the peacekeeping forces are struggling to contain the situation. Will the unrest last months -- or decades?
"The situation cannot be resolved without a bloodbath. We are prepared for anything, including war."
The president of Egypt dared to say what many Russians fear to utter - that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between Vladimir Putin and his successor Dmitry Medvedev. Casting aside diplomatic protocol, Hosni Mubarak riled Putin by pointing out that the 2 men were so similar in style, policies and appearance as to be virtually indistinguishable.
Do to others?...
The chief rabbi of Safed has urged the Israeli regime to officially allow "revenge against Arabs to restore Israel's deterrence." "[Israel] has to pain them to the point where they scream 'Enough,' to the point where they fall flat on their face and scream 'help.'" In a newsletter, he proposes "hanging the children" of those who attacked the Mercaz Harav yeshiva from a tree.
After Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa urged the Lebanese to take part in an Arab summit this weekend in Damascus, the Lebanese government today decided to boycott the summit without ruling out the possibility of sending a message that could be read at the summit.
Iraq's leaders faced their gravest challenge in months Tuesday as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled for control of the southern oil capital, fought US and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and unleashed rockets on the Green Zone.
(Analysis: The struggle for Basra)
(Op-ed: Basra is the test)
The Chinese consulate was firebombed. This is what the War Party would like to do to China. Fortunately, there are a number of restraining factors that get in the way. In the meantime, however, our preening politicians demagogue the China issue.
Why do politicians of Pelosi's ilk join hands with neoconservatives in a concerted campaign to antagonize China, and even threaten sanctions and possible military action when the occasion gives rise to the opportunity?
As is so often the case, we are creating the very enemies we fear, empowering and arming them ideologically. We are, in this sense, our own worst enemies.
The new Iranian parliament is again dominated by loyalists to President Ahmadinejad. He stands a good chance of being reelected next year -- despite the fact that his constituents suffer the brunt of his mismanagement and corruption.
Egyptian President Mubarak's concern about Iran's involvement in Gaza does not stem only from Hamas' growing military capabilities. Rather, his primary fear is that control over "Arab policy" - which has traditionally been dictated by Egypt and Saudi Arabia - will be taken over by Iran.
Mubarak is particularly incensed that Syria, whose close ties with Iran he had until recently refrained from criticizing, continues to thwart the Arab League's efforts, as well as his and Saudi King Abdullah's personal efforts, to resolve the crisis in Lebanon.
Egypt's fear is that Iran is building a web of diplomatic influence among Egypt's neighbors, and thereby building itself up as a rival to the Arab club - and especially to members of what is known as the moderate axis.
Iran's Foreign Minister has lodged an official protest over anti-Iran moves by the UN Security Council.
A single Aegis warship equipped with anti-ballistic interceptors and deployed in the Persian Gulf could undercut the credibility of any Iranian nuclear threat. And the same U.S. submarines that now listen in on Iranian communications could also be used to land Special Forces at dozens of locations along the coastline.
The State Department, OSD, the intelligence agencies, the Army and the Marine Corps are all opposed to war with Iran. Of the armed services, only the Air Force reportedly is in favor, seeking an opportunity to show what air power can do.
The purpose of this column is not to warn of an imminent assault on Iran, though personally I think it is coming, and soon. Rather, it is to warn of a possible consequence of such an attack. Let me state it here, again, as plainly as I can: an American attack on Iran could cost us the whole army we now have in Iraq.
Lots of people in Washington are pondering possible consequences of an air and missile assault on Iran, but few if any have thought about this one. The American military's endless "we're the greatest" propaganda has convinced most people that the US armed forces cannot be beaten in the field.
They are the last in a long line of armies that could not be beaten, until they were. If the US lost the army it has in Iraq, we would never recover from the defeat.
In the recently published thriller, The Shell Game, Steve Alten weaves a tale of a neoconservative plot to attack Iran. To overcome resistance, a black op group associated with a Republican administration arranges for nuclear devices to be exploded in 2 American cities, with planted evidence pointing to Iran. Recent developments make one wonder if fact is following fantasy.
The Bush regime's propaganda against Iran is going full blast and obviously has a purpose. The foreign press reports that the reason for Cheney's latest trip abroad is to cajole, threaten, and purchase support for a US attack on Iran.
A conspiracy willing to launch an invasion of a country on false pretenses would not hesitate to pull off a false flag event if it would further their agenda. The massive human, financial and diplomatic cost of the Iraq invasion is a good indication that neoconservatives are willing for America to pay any price for establishing their agenda of achieving American/Israeli hegemony over the Middle East.
We will likely never know, but a neoconservative false flag operation might lie behind what appears to have been the accidental poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko by a rare and tightly controlled radioactive isotope, Polonium-210. Litvinenko, a former member of KGB counterintelligence, operated in the shadowy world of "security consultants" on a fake passport given to him by the British government.
Where had the Polonium come from? No one knows, but nuclear physicist Gordon Prather noted at the time that Litvinenko had recently been to Israel and that Israel's nuclear reactors are not subject to international safeguards.
For what purpose was Polonium being smuggled? No one knows, but Prather notes that Polonium-210 has a short shelf-life that would turn any stored weapon into a dud within months.
According to knowledgeable people, Polonium-210 would be useful for a dirty bomb that would do little real damage but would create enough fear and hysteria for the neocons to start another war.
Steve Alten was more alert than the media. He saw what might be the real story behind Litvinenko's death by Polonium-210. Realizing that fantasy is one route by which Americans can be brought to the facts, and hoping to preclude any such real world event, Alten wrote a thriller predictive of our future between now and 2012.
The overriding theme of Vice President Dick Cheney's now-concluded trip to the Middle East was to marshal support for the Bush administration's menacing stance against Iran.
Referring to Tehran as the "darkening cloud" over the region, Cheney left no doubt that the Bush administration has not resiled from its oft-repeated threat to keep all options—including the military one—on the table.
All the countries on the 9-day itinerary are either key US allies in the region, or would play a critical role in any attack on Iran. Especially ominous was the visit to Oman, which not only provides logistical support for the US military in the region, but occupies the southern coastline of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
(Disinfo: Israel sees dwindling chance of US strike)
The British oligarchy, working through British intelligence and its longstanding assets and dupes, has launched a series of provocations, aimed at triggering a new "Great Eurasian War," pitting the trans-Atlantic powers against China, Russia, India, and other leading Eurasian states.
The drive for war is coming from the highest levels of the British oligarchy, and is aimed at preventing, at all costs, collaboration among the US, Russia, India, and China to deal with the onrushing collapse of the post-Bretton Woods global financial system.
As in the 1920s and 1930s, the British oligarchy, today, is pressing for the imposition of fascism in Europe and the Americas, and for malthusian wars across Eurasia, aimed at wiping out the nation-state system, and a vast majority of the population of the planet, to establish a London-run world empire.
Britain and France will work "hand in hand" to reform international institutions such as the United Nations, Prime Minister Brown said in an interview published Wednesday in the French daily Le Monde. Brown said that he and Sarkozy had worked together for years, when they were both finance ministers, "and we have the same vision of a globalized world."
Brown went on to say: "France and Britain can therefore work hand in hand with common interests and shared values. This is the case, and you will see it in the coming weeks, of the reform of international institutions created in 1945: the UN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund."
It has emerged that Barack Obama is a 10th cousin, once removed, of the man whose job he wants - George W Bush. They are linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662. Obama is also a distant cousin of the actor Brad Pitt while Hillary Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
Inquiry by conservative US media outlets reveals that Obama advisor Merrill 'Tony' McPeak is a longtime anti-Israel critic who slammed American Jews for acting against US interests.
It was to be the election they literally couldn't lose. Under Republican misrule, the value of the dollar has plummeted, we've blundered into two endless wars, and our economy is headed over a cliff.
For 7 years, corruption and incompetence have oozed from every pore of this administration's mangy hide, and the president's popularity rating rivals that of a bad case of head lice.
It would take an act of stupidity so implausible – a series of blunders so colossal – that the very idea the Democrats could let this presidential election slip away shouldn't even be in the realm of possibility.
Yet somehow they are doing just that. Thus, at the very moment when America needs the Democratic Party most, it is devouring itself with shocking blood-lust. How did it come to this?
(And: Hillary lying again)
(Cartoon: A 100-year war)
(Cartoon: Political lemmings)
Deutsche Bank has warned that continuing global credit turmoil and possible further bad debt write downs may see it miss its 2008 profit target. It said that if "exceptionally difficult" trading conditions continue, it may fail to meet its aim of $13bn in net profits.
The euro breached $1.57 on Wednesday after a buoyant reading on business sentiment in Germany.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has questioned whether France and Britain could not work together to put pressure on the US to strengthen the dollar.
The Chinese currency, the yuan, recorded its 2nd high in as many days today against the weakening US dollar.
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer yesterday lowered the central bank interest rate to its lowest level ever, confounding analysts' forecasts of a much milder monetary move.
But then Fischer sprung a huge surprise, by announcing that the Bank of Israel would, from yesterday, begin to buy $25 million-worth of dollars on the foreign currency market every business day, in order to build up Israel's foreign currency reserves by $10 billion over 2 years.
The global financial crisis is spreading – towards the real economy in the US and towards other developed countries. A frightening example came from Iceland, where the central bank yesterday raised interest rates by 1.25% to 15% to bring down inflationary expectations.
We have not seen such action in quite some time, it may be a sign of what lies in store for other central banks around the world. The central bank of Iceland blamed the decision on the global financial crisis.
The credit crunch will globally cost $1.2 trillion according to a report from the bank Goldman Sachs. The report says 40%, or $480bn, of those losses will hit US banks, brokerages and other institutions. Goldman estimates that US financial firms have already reported losses of $120bn since the credit crunch began.
Citigroup has called for radical measures to end Britain's financial crisis, rebuking the Bank of England for moving too slowly to meet liquidity needs and waiting too long to head off an economic downturn.
"They still seem to be concerned about moral hazard, but we are long past that. It is not a question of bailing out the City. We're faced with the threat of unnecessary damage to the real economy."
The blunt criticisms come as Britain's interbank borrowing market began to sieze up again.
(Op-ed: Markets and moral hazards)
Central banks' efforts to ease strains in the money markets are failing to stop financial institutions from hoarding cash, stoking fears that the recent respite in equity markets may not signal the end of the credit crisis.
Banks' borrowing costs - a sign of their willingness to lend to each other - in the US, eurozone and the UK rose again even after the Federal Reserve's unprecedented activity in lending to retail and investment banks against weaker than usual collateral and similar action in Europe.
Add up the gross domestic product for all the world and it comes to about $50 trillion. But now there's a wild trade going on between investors in something called "derivatives" that adds up to more than $700 trillion.
When President Nixon took the dollar off the gold reserve standard, he effectively ended the Bretton Woods system of fixed currency-exchange rates. Nixon's action set into motion the creation of the largest financial bubble in history, a bubble the collapse of which is now laying waste to the global banking system and securities markets.
We have now reached the point where all of us must decide: Do we go back to what works, or do we descend into fascism and chaos, and a new Dark Age?
In essence, the Bear Stearns rescue addressed a liquidity problem. Even so, this is not just a crisis of liquidity. Where will it all end?
Not before banks, investors and regulators can put realistic values on the securitised products in a broken financial system, which is the nub of the solvency issue. For that to happen, the housing market has to stabilise.
And Bear Stearns will not, I promise, be the last institution that proves too interlinked to fail
Remember Friday March 14 2008: it was the day the dream of global free-market capitalism died. For 3 decades we have moved towards market-driven financial systems. By its decision to rescue Bear Stearns, the Federal Reserve, chief protagonist of free-market capitalism, declared this era over.
It showed in deeds its agreement with the remark by the CEO of Deutsche Bank, that "I no longer believe in the market's self-healing power". Deregulation has reached its limits.
In continued signs of economic recession in the US, figures released on Tuesday show home prices and consumer confidence falling sharply.
Egypt's government is struggling to contain a political crisis sparked by rising world food prices. Violent clashes have broken out at long lines for subsidized bread, and the president, worried about unrest, has ordered the army to step in to provide more.
The crisis in the world's most populous Arab country and a top US ally in the Mideast is a stark sign of how rising food prices are roiling poorer countries worldwide.
The pollination of crops by bees is responsible for a third of the food produced in the US. One in every 3 mouthfuls has been touched by their tiny feet; but our 6-legged friends are in trouble.
They are getting sick and leaving their hives. Without bees, food gets more expensive - some products could disappear altogether.
"It's worse than last year, and last year was worse than the year before, so it's bad, and there are a lot of good big beekeepers that are having a lot of problems. I think we're coming in for a big train wreck."
(And: Death of the bees)
Venezuelan President Chavez said Colombia's defense minister is seeking to promote war between their countries. Chavez said he doesn't think Colombian President Uribe shares the views of Defense Minister Santos and said he hopes to meet with his Colombian counterpart "soon."
A mystery illness that has scientists baffled is wiping out tens of thousands of bats across the north-east of the US. Alan Hicks is the veteran government conservationist who first spotted the problem last year in a New York cave. He is aware that bats lack the popular appeal of many other animals, but he thinks the syndrome is yet another environmental alarm bell.
Because of the Internet, you, the reader, no longer have to buy information in pre-fabricated packages like "newspapers." You can just go online and individually select the articles you want to read. And there are lots of websites and blogs to help you out.
Every day, Matt Drudge, the Huffington Post, Yahoo, Google, Swampland, or a hundred other different bloggers, will pre-select articles for you and provide links. You choose your own adventure.
With little warning, 3 big sunspots have materialized and on March 25th one of them unleashed an M2-class solar flare. This is the biggest flare of the year and it signals a significant increase in solar activity.
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