Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The time allotted to reach the Millennium Development Goals is already half over, and the Holy See says many of the problems the goals aim to alleviate are still rampant. Archbishop Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN, affirmed this in an address delivered to the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly.
"In the year 2000, in this very hall, heads of state and of government agreed on an ambitious, yet needed, set of global development goals to be achieved by 2015. At the halfway point, while much has been done toward achieving the goals, abject poverty, hunger, illiteracy and lack of even the most basic health care are still rampant, indeed worsening in some regions. Tackling these challenges that continue to afflict hundreds of millions remains, therefore, at the very center of our concerns."
(And: Full text of address)
(And: Full text of address)
The German central bank warned on Saturday that inflation could be higher than it had predicted due to recent public-sector deals for wage hikes.
Berlin has abandoned plans to increase the percentage of ethanol in gasoline sold at the country's pumps.
A minority government headed by incumbent Premier Roland Koch took office in the western German state of Hesse Saturday after elections 10 weeks ago failed to produce a clear winner.
Some 30 officers from elite police units and the armed forces in Germany are under investigation over allegations they secretly trained Libyan security forces on their own time and without permission.
(And: BND denies role in training)
[Europress] [Russopress]
A Roman Catholic revolt is threatening to derail Silvio Berlusconi's return to power in Italy, as the Church questions the flamboyant billionaire's "shifting morals". Until now, Berlusconi has counted on the support of millions of traditionally conservative Catholic voters who make up a third of the electorate.
However, in recent weeks the Church has switched its support to his former political partner, Pier Ferdinando Casini, of the UDC party. The call to support the UDC came from one of the Vatican's most senior prelates, Cardinal Ruini.
In addition, Famiglia Cristiana, one of Italy's biggest-selling Catholic magazines, accused Berlusconi of having "shifting morals" and of taking positions on key issues such as abortion and gay marriages only for "political ends".
Monsignor Betori, the secretary of the Italian bishops, said what was important to Catholic voters was "a return to the fundamental values of the Church".
(Op-ed: A leopard, spots unchanged)
By happy coincidence, two events last week again confirmed the Orwellian ingenuity of the EU's coup d'état over the constitution. Once the treaty had been rammed through the Commons, it was the turn of the Lords. The 12-hour debate, the longest of recent times, was wholly ignored by the press - and why should it have been otherwise?
The futile notion that Europe can be run by its top trio
President Sarkozy called for a new Franco-British brotherhood. Sarkozy and Prime Minister Brown agreed to establish a network of new bilateral contacts, ministerial meetings and official exchanges, consciously modelled on the structure that underpins the Franco-German relationship.
Cue some excitable talk in Downing Street of a new Franco-British motor to propel the European agenda—starting under the French presidency of the European Union in the 2nd half of this year. The Germans were not amused.
(And: This week in the EU)
The smiles in Bucharest were little more than show. Politically, the NATO summit was a fiasco. The Western alliance remains deeply divided and faces an identity crisis -- with Russian relations just one of the alliance's many points of dispute.
(And: With allies like these)
(And: NATO summit declaration)
Vladimir Putin yesterday told NATO that it would become a "direct threat" to Moscow if it expanded further east. Emboldened after routing the alliance's plans to offer membership to Ukraine and Georgia, the Russian president yesterday gave warning that the countries must be locked out permanently.
"The emergence of a powerful military bloc at our borders will be seen as a direct threat to Russian security. The efficiency of our co-operation will depend on whether NATO members take Russia's interests into account."
The speech set the scene for a meeting between President Bush and Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi to discuss Washington's plans to build a missile defence shield in central Europe.
Although the US president won unanimous NATO backing for the project, Putin remains virulently opposed to the shield and has threatened to target Europe with nuclear missiles if it is built.
Russia has rejected Washington's explanation that the shield is meant to protect Europe from a nuclear strike by Iran as well as several offers to co-operate in the project. The Kremlin maintains that the true purpose of the shield is to remove Russia's ability to strike first in the even of a nuclear war.
As George Bush and Vladimir Putin meet as president-to-president for the 28th and final time, the US leader may well be reflecting on how a relationship that once seemed so promising could have soured so much. Diplomats are warning that there is little prospect of a breakthrough in the East-West diplomatic crisis.
Secret exit strategy?...
In public, NATO is demanding that all allies contribute their fair share to the ongoing effort in Afghanistan. But behind closed doors, a paper has been circulated that may provide the beginnings of an exit strategy. Germany is pushing the plan.
Israel and the US are coordinating the release of details on the air force strike in Syria last September, which foreign reports claim targeted a nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. American officials may reveal details of the strike later this month during congressional hearings.
There are conflicting reports from Hezbollah, Israel and Syria regarding peace and war. While Hezbollah strongly believes that the major Israeli maneuvers that will start today reflect serious preparations for war, Israel is saying there is no intention to launch any attacks against its neighbors.
The best 60th birthday present Israel could give itself is a new political system
There are many reasons why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has remained so intractable: land, religion, national identity, history, the scars of violence, the meddling of outside powers and global ideological strife.
But one factor that gets less attention than it should is quite mundane, and yet extremely influential: the Israeli electoral system. For the sake of its security and domestic well-being, it now needs a system that makes politicians answerable to voters, not to other politicians.
British troops have been sent back into Basra just months after control of the southern city was placed in the hands of the Iraqis. Up to 150 British soldiers are now "embedded" with Iraqi army units in Basra, fighting insurgent groups which now hold power in large areas of the city.
Officials in Iran confirmed for the first time Saturday that the country played an important role in brokering a recent truce between the Iraqi government and anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "It is in Iran's best interests to see unity among Shiite factions."
The eyes of the world's media are fixed on President Robert Mugabe and the only subject under discussion is "Will he or won't he go?"
In the meantime, a quiet and little remarked process is going on behind the scenes. There is a creeping process of regime change under way that will affect not just Zimbabwe, but the entire region and marks a new phase in the recolonialisation of Southern Africa.
The British and US governments are engineering the transition to a new regime that will be more open to transnational investment, will allow the resources of Zimbabwe to be more freely plundered and make a well-educated English-speaking working class available for exploitation.
The crisis that Mugabe faces in Zimbabwe is only the most acute expression of what is happening to regimes throughout the continent. A long-established political formation is unravelling before our eyes.
Iran's Majlis Speaker has said the Muslim world should boycott trade with any country that allows insults to Islam. He noted that sacrilege of Islamic sanctities is the ugliest kind of cultural onslaught and violation of human rights.
"The Western countries are making optimum use of books, films, animations and their media to weaken the beliefs of Muslims and to insult Islamic sanctities." He expressed his opinion that the Western countries will reconsider their attitude toward Islam when they see their economic interests at stake.
I find myself becoming increasingly concerned about the prospect a unilateral attack by the US against Iran. Seymour Hersh has told us that we have been perched on the precipice of preemptive war with Iran for some time.
Iranians are among the most gracious and hospitable people I've ever met. The question, of course, is whether we should bomb these people? In America today, we tend to see things in Manichaean terms. That is, we divide things into absolute opposites, light and dark, good and evil, us and them.
(And: The folly of attacking Iran)
British officials gave warning yesterday that America's commander in Iraq will declare that Iran is waging war against the US-backed Baghdad government.
A strong statement from General Petraeus about Iran's intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian military facilities, according to a Whitehall assessment. In closely watched testimony in Washington this week, Gen Petraeus will state that the Iranian threat has risen as Tehran has supplied and directed attacks by militia fighters against the Iraqi state and its US allies.
"Petraeus is going to go very hard on Iran as the source of attacks on the American effort in Iraq," a British official said. "Iran is waging a war in Iraq. The idea that America can't fight a war on 2 fronts is wrong, there can be airstrikes and other moves."
The Wall Street Journal said last week that the US war effort in Iraq must have a double goal. "The US must recognise that Iran is engaged in a full-up proxy war against it in Iraq," wrote the military analyst Kimberly Kagan.
(But: Media whores like Kimberly Kagan, wife of Frederick Kagan, another war prostitute, are doing their master's bidding by promoting lie after lie to help get America to fight Israel's "existential" enemy, Iran.)
Hmmm...
Russian Military Analysts are today reporting that the US Air Force has 'shot down' one of their own bombers reported to be on an 'attack run' towards Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant.
According to these reports, an American B-1 Lancer supersonic strategic nuclear bomber attempted to 'deviate' from its assigned flight path over the Persian Gulf Nation of Qatar by rapidly descending for what these reports state is 'typical' for these types of aircraft when engaging in combat.
When contacted by US Air Force officials stationed at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base, this B-1 nuclear bomber 'squawked' what is called a 'CIA Identification Code', and not, what Russian Military Analysts say, was the correct code for American fighter aircraft over flying Middle Eastern Nations, whereupon it was ordered to land or face an 'immediate' shoot down.
Russian Military intercepts of US Air Force communications, during this incident, portray a chaotic scene where after refusing to change its course, US Military Officials ordered a US F-16 Fighter Jet to 'strafe' the B-1 nuclear bomber, but then a US Naval Carrier, stationed in the Persian Gulf, 'ordered' its fighter jets to attack those of the US Air Force.
Russian Military Commanders further speculate, in these reports, that the Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, who last week ordered a full inventory of all American nuclear weapons, was 'no doubt' the US Military Commander who issued the 'shoot down' order for this B-1 nuclear bomber as he has been reported long at odds with Vice President Cheney, over the latter's push for an immediate nuclear strike against Iran.
Reuters 1st report...
"A B-1 crashed. We're investigating," a US defense official said. ... Al Jazeera television earlier said the plane was a B-52.
AP 1st report...
The US military says a B-1 bomber has crashed at an American air base in Qatar.
Truth or spin?...
A US Air Force B-1 bomber caught fire Friday after a landing at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, US military officials said. They said the fire began while the plane was taxiing after landing.
Today's update...
A hydraulic failure caused the US Air Force B-1 bomber to veer off the runway, and it caught fire following a "ground incident" at the Al Udeid Air Base on Friday, a military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Gulf Times yesterday.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Al Udeid Air Base told Gulf Times that the aircraft, which was returning from a combat mission, caught fire and the blaze set off the munitions onboard, leading to a series of explosions.
Asked to specify the "ground incident" involving the aircraft, the US official said the phrase generally referred to cases like hard brakes, blown tyres and bird hits. He would not say whether the plane caught fire after the ground incident or before it.
The official rejected suggestions that the aircraft had hit anything or any sort of collision occurred on the ground. "According to our information, the ground incident occurred while the bomber was taxiing after it returned to its base from a combat mission, the details of which cannot be revealed due to security reasons."
A series of loud explosions were heard in many parts of Doha on Friday night and people living near the air base said the blasts were so strong that it shook the ground and they fled their homes, assuming that an earthquake had struck.
Britain is suffering from an epidemic of family breakdowns affecting all levels of society from the Royal family downwards, one of the country's most senior judges said yesterday. He accused Gordon Brown of prioritising the abolition of plastic bags over support for families, and that the Government is "fiddling while Rome burns".
"We are experiencing a period of family meltdown whose effects will be as catastrophic as the meltdown of the ice caps." Judges are witnessing a "never-ending carnival" of human misery, and almost all of society's social ills can be traced back to the collapse in family stability, he said.
During the post-WW2 trials at Nuremberg, the US led the world in decrying aggressive war as "the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
By invading Iraq without the approval of the UN Security Council and under false pretenses, the Bush administration released upon the Iraqi people "the accumulated evil of the whole" – and committed the "supreme" war crime.
An obvious reason why the mainstream US press can't handle this truth is that to do so would mean that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, a host of other US officials and even some prominent journalists could be regarded as war criminals.
To accept that reality would, in turn, create a moral imperative to take action. And that would require a great disruption in the existing US power structure.
The cumulative effect of this willful conformity and this informal censorship has been to engender a form of collective madness at the decision-making levels of the US government -- and within the upper echelons of the news media.
As if we didn't already know, we have yet another piece of evidence that one of the major "accomplishments" of the Bush administration (and you didn't think there were any) has been a relentless push for more executive power.
When American politicians talk about strategic interests, they are talking about just what I called it, manure.
The military is a culture apart, and McCain's background is extreme even by military standards. And some find his talk of self-sacrifice alarming.
As heiress to her father's stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him launch his political career -- even if the millions remain in her name alone.
The official story of 9/11 is riddled with internal contradictions. One of these contradictions involves the question of how long President Bush remained in classroom on the morning of 9/11.
Friday's Labor Department report, revealing that US payrolls were cut by 80,000 jobs in March and that 232,000 jobs have been lost in the past 3 months, can only mean new levels of social misery and raises the specter of a severe economic slump, perhaps the deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Millions of Americans face the prospect of a sharp decline in living standards and conditions of life. The process feeds on itself. Economic uncertainty and the loss of jobs lead to decreased purchases, which contribute to further layoffs.
The decline of the position of American capitalism in the world, its decisive loss of global hegemony, has the most profound implications. For wide layers of the population it means, in the first place, a series of severe shocks. In the end, this process must have revolutionary political consequences.
The City of London faces a severe recession and the UK economy is set to follow the US into a sharp downturn, according to a gloomy prognosis from the billionaire financier George Soros.
Faced with over-valued houses, mountains of personal debt and a rise in unemployment, the UK is especially vulnerable to the effects of the credit crisis sweeping through financial markets, Soros said, and he warned not to expect a rebound at any point in the near future.
Indeed, the crisis is so serious that it will up-end 25 years of free-market thinking and bring to an end an era of cheaper and easier borrowing, he predicted. "It is not going to be like the 1930s – we are not going to allow financial institutions to fail – but this is a historic event like the Great Depression was."
(And: Lessons of history)
The idiocy that the banks have shown in making bad loans will spread to the entire financial sector. Regulation by tenured staff economists will not make the system less fragile. It will make it more top-heavy and less flexible. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. They will fall all at once. That is the curse of centralization and government regulation.
(And: Regulation: Will it fly?)
(Op-ed: Fixing finance)
A plan for economic thievery, government oversight for banks, brokerages, and investment houses, bankruptcy at the taxpayer's expense, lets have the fox watch the hen house, financial vampires of wall street out to suck us all dry, worries for non-insider funds of all kinds ...
Toxic political and economic policies to share with the world, billions from wars, tactics to keep other nations in line, treasury bond rates at deep lows, clinton finances disclosed, net loss in job growth ...
The oil price could hit $160 a barrel as soon as next week, says ´Zapata' George Blake, the Texan oil analyst quoted by the London-based online newsletter Money Morning. He has a habit of making bold calls that often seem to be proved right. He thinks there's an imminent supply squeeze ahead, which will cause the oil price to spike.
(And: Mideast oil flow may decline)
Across the US, consumers are finding that grocery shopping has become a sobering experience as their budgets fail to keep pace with food costs.
Already squeezed by high gasoline prices, slumping home values, a weakening job market and the possibility that the US economy is in a recession, consumers have adopted a no-nonsense approach to shopping, passing over a trip to Target or a local grocery store if they can find lower prices at Wal-Mart.
US consumer food prices normally rise by about 2.5% annually, but they increased by 4% in 2007 -- the biggest increase in 17 years, according to USDA data. Increasingly, shoppers must wait until payday to load up on groceries and then hunker down until the next paycheck.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
Matter over mind?...
Interestingly, restraining our consumer spending, in the short term, may cause us to actually loosen the belts around our waists. What's the connection? The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others.
The good news, however, is that practice increases willpower capacity. Willpower can grow in the long term. Like a muscle, willpower seems to become stronger with use.
What limits willpower? Some have suggested that it is blood sugar, which brain cells use as their main energy source and cannot do without for even a few minutes. Exerting self-control lowers blood sugar, which reduces the capacity for further self-control.
Foods that persistently elevate blood sugar, like those containing protein or complex carbohydrates, might enhance willpower for longer periods. Whatever the explanation, consistently doing any activity that requires self-control seems to increase willpower.
Tonight's sky
If you live in Europe or North America, you might be able to catch the youngest of young moons after sunset today. Starting 30 minutes or so after sunset today, look above the sunset point on the horizon with binoculars and keep on looking.
You just might spot the pale, whisker-thin crescent moon smiling at you in the twilight. If you miss the moon this evening, try catching an older but a more photogenic young moon basking in earthshine on Monday night.
[WAR: Now, while this "pale, whisker-thin crescent" will be seen in North America with the naked eye -- but doubtful in Europe; not in the Mideast (chart) -- it will stay in the Sun's glow and set with the onset of darkness -- so that crescent moon belongs to this day that will be ending.
So tonight, there will be no moon ruling with the stars -- no multiple witnesses of light to proclaim a new moon. But tomorrow night will be a different story -- as the description above indicates...]
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