Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
[WAR: There may not be a WAR for the next couple/few days...]
Benedict XVI says he is grateful and relieved that the situation in Lebanon has returned to the path of dialogue.
"With gratitude and relief we have followed recent developments in Lebanon, which has returned to the path of dialogue and mutual understanding. I express again the desire that Lebanon be able to respond with courage to its vocation to be for the Middle East and the whole world a sign of the effective possibility of peaceful and constructive coexistence among men."
The Vatican is proposing politics as a form of charity, but affirming that the Church has an essential contribution to make to the political world.
A Vatican official said Friday's celebration of International Refugee Day is an occasion to reaffirm the Church's social doctrine. According to Cardinal Martino, the UN initiative is "an occasion to reaffirm the principles established by the social doctrine of the Church and also included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Germany has been labelled the world's greenest country after it cut its energy use by more than any other state in 2007.
According to a study, social prejudice is rife across the full spectrum of German society -- ranging from a dislike of foreigners to a resentment of the unemployed.
Over the course of hours of crisis talks in Brussels, Ireland found itself under heavy pressure to do something to fix its voters' rejection of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
"I made it clear that however frustrating for them [EU leaders], it is simply too early to know how we are going to move forward on this point," the Irish Prime Minister said, stressing this is an "honest" response he can offer. "I can't say whether there will be any further referendums on this issue."
It is time to accept that the Lisbon Treaty is dead. The European Union can get along well enough without it.
Attempts by diehards to forge a core group of countries that builds a United States of Europe would also founder because, outside Belgium and Luxembourg, there is no longer a serious appetite for a federal Europe.
Delaying until autumn efforts to salvage the Lisbon Treaty, leaders of the European Union argued Friday over who was to blame for Ireland's no vote and failed to agree on how to assuage the anger of voters over rising commodity prices.
Billed as a crisis summit after the Irish rejection of the Lisbon agreement, the meeting failed to chart a clear way out of the impasse created by the vote.
How Europe's leaders respond when voters give the wrong answer.
President Sarkozy has been accused of putting the brakes on European Union expansion in a desperate attempt to salvage the Lisbon Treaty.
The Conservatives said the French president was "blackmailing" the rest of the EU by claiming that moves to bring more nations into the union - starting with Croatia - would have to be put on hold in the wake of this month's "No" vote on the Treaty in the Irish referendum.
Most European air force bases that house US nuclear bombs are failing to meet security requirements to protect the weapons, according to an internal US Air Force investigation. As a result of the security concerns, the US may decide to consolidate the nuclear weapons at fewer bases in Europe.
Germany is hoping to raise some $183.6 million for investment in the West Bank at a key meeting on Palestinian security in Berlin on Tuesday. The aim of the conference on Palestinian security is to send a clear signal for the development of a functioning Palestinian state.
Security officials stunned by release of al-Qaida's "ambassador to Europe"
Is the release from prison this week of a radical cleric once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe part of a deal that Britain made with Gaza-based terrorists for the freedom last summer of kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston?
British forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world's most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban. Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave which sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies.
Iran accused the US on Saturday of supporting a Sunni Muslim rebel group which said on Friday it had killed 2 of 16 Iranian policemen kidnapped last week in a volatile area near the border with Pakistan. "This terrorist group, which is supported by the Americans, has a history of such terrorist acts."
British special forces operating on the border between Afghanistan and Iran have uncovered fresh evidence that Tehran is actively backing insurgents fighting UK troops.
Documented proof that Iran is supplying the Taliban with devastating roadside bomb-making equipment has been passed by British officials to Tehran, prompting fears that the war in Afghanistan may escalate into a regional armed conflict.
Experts believe North Korea provided assistance to Iran at the Syrian facility believed bombed by Israel Air Force in September 2007, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday. The weekly said the Syrian site at al-Kibar was used to produce nuclear material the Iranian regime needed to make a bomb.
Iran called Israel a "dangerous regime" on Saturday, after a US report that the Jewish state had carried out a large military exercise, apparently a rehearsal for a potential bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities. "It demonstrates the Islamic Republic of Iran's view that this (Israel) is a dangerous regime and an impediment to peace and calm in the region and world."
A senior Israeli MP has warned that diplomatic measures to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions are not working and that the world must soon decide on further measures.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert says the army is prepared to counter 'the evermore serious threat posed by Iran' against Israel.
"I don't need to tell you that the dangers and threats to Israel's security have not disappeared and in certain aspects they are even graver than the past. However, the army is strong and we know how to defend ourselves."
Iran has said it considers a military attack on its nuclear facilities by Israel as "impossible". "Such audacity to embark on an assault against the interests and territorial integrity of our country is impossible," said a spokesman.
The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) has warned that a military strike on Iran to prevent it developing atomic weapons would turn the region into a "fireball."
"What I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger. If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work. A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything. It would turn the region into a fireball."
Increasing Anglo-American pressure on Turkey
Covering the period of March-June 2008, this article will try to highlight the political pressure applied by the US and UK governments on Turkey in view of their war plans against Iran.
Meanwhile, a US-sponsored political engineering process has entered its last phase, warning the entire political spectrum in Turkey to toe the line. It is relentlessly trying to ensure that a fully compliant government is in power before launching the next Anglo-American war on Iran and possibly on Syria.
Within 48 hours, fallout would cover much of Iran, most of Afghanistan and spread on into Pakistan and India. In the immediate area of the 2 attacks, our calculations show that within 48 hours, an estimated 2.6 million people would die.
Over 1 million people would suffer immediate injuries including thermal and flash burns, radiation sickness, broken limbs, lacerations, blindness, crush injuries, burst eardrums and other traumas.
In the wider region, over 10.5 million people would be exposed to significant radiation from fallout. Little or no medical care would be available to the injured in the aftermath of an attack, leading to many avoidable deaths.
For 30 years Jim Woolsey has been a hawkish guardian of American national security. As director of the CIA under Bill Clinton he lived every day with the terrorist threats to his homeland.
Yet in his view, the greatest danger to the country now is not nuclear and chemical weapons but climate change and the American dependence on oil which is partly blamed for causing it.
He is one of a new generation of so-called "Greenocons", campaigners who are making the case for a green American foreign and energy policy not just to save the planet, but to keep America safe too.
(And: Minnesota gov to be VP?)
Robert Kaplan is a throw-back to the late 19th century imperialists who believed in the inherent right of the US to dominate the lesser breeds and believed that the manly art of war is good for civilization.
Kaplan is also a political attack dog for the imperialist right on Iraq. In his latest column he admonishes Obama that must change his stance on troop withdrawal from Iraq or face serious political consequences this fall.
(Cartoons: Obama vs. McCain)
America's longing for an empire has a long history. It has become acceptable to speak of empire, both among those who defend American foreign policy and those who condemn it.
Is everything spinning out of control? The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance. A battered public seems discouraged by the onslaught of dispiriting things.
Most Americans are so helpless and ignorant that we would starve to death standing next to a cow in a field of ripe wheat
Preparedness doesn't have to mean you have to hole up in the mountains against the collapse of civilization. Rather, it suggests that when a natural or man-made disaster strikes, you won't be hungry, thirsty, in the dark and unable to use the toilet.
We are a nation that has totally, utterly, completely lost the ability to take care of ourselves. Virtually everything we own or consume are provided by someone else. The division of labor has gotten so extreme that we are now parasitically lost without it. One small interruption and we're in trouble...
[WAR:
* "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest." (Prov 6:6-8).
* "Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer." (Prov 30:25).
* "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." Prov 22:3)
A resurgence of oil prices and financial sector credit fears on Friday knocked global equities to near the year's lows, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing below 12,000 for the first time since mid-March.
The dollar on Friday was headed for its biggest weekly decrease against the euro in almost 3 months on speculation that the Federal Reserve will delay increasing borrowing costs to prevent further credit market writedowns.
Dollar to fall to metals in upcoming rallies, rate hikes soon wont be able to fix economic problems, real inflation understated for years, USDX contracts plummet,why arent people fleeing from the stock market... Exchange Traded Funds are a disaster, losses from global write downs, Fed still invited to intervene in spite of failures...
The Bank of England's message on interest rates in recent days was intended to be neutral, sources say, and not a signal that the monetary policy committee is contemplating early rate rises.
China's secretive sovereign wealth funds will help its state-owned companies to expand overseas in a shift of strategy after economic talks with America, according to analysts in Shanghai.
The negotiations, led on the American side by Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, ended with an agreement to open Chinese capital markets further to institutional investors by reducing the "lockup" period for investments.
The funds are likely to become indirect owners of big stakes in troubled financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers as they step up the pace of investment abroad. China is seeking to diversify its holdings of more than $1.7 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves, which are mainly in US treasury bonds and other fixed-income assets.
The life of a short-seller is a hard one—especially when markets turn sour and people look for someone to blame.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez lamented a set of rules approved by the European Union to expel illegal immigrants and threatened to stop sending crude oil to European countries that implement the law.
Then, he suggested that in the same way that Europe decides to return Latin American illegal immigrants to their countries of origin, Latin American countries could also decide on the return of European investments.
King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, has blamed speculators and rising taxes for the soaring price of oil as he announced his country would increase production.
"There are several factors behind the unjustified, swift rise in oil prices ... speculators who play the market out of selfish interests, increased consumption by several developing economies and additional taxes on oil in several consuming countries."
(And: The puzzle of oil production)
Oil prices could hit $200 a barrel in the next few months. How the spike changes everything
It's a shift that could change the world. And there are more changes to come. Michael L. Ross, associate professor of political science at UCLA, notes that the percentage of the world's wars that take place in oil states is growing.
More blood will almost certainly be spilled. Oil wealth tends to wreak havoc on a nation's economy and politics, discouraging diversity, aggravating ethnic grievances and making it easier to fund insurgencies.
A fundamental change is coming sooner than you might think.
(And: Energy special report)
What if a hurricane wiped out all the oil refining facilities in Houston, and at about the same time Al Qaeda attacked oil production in Saudi Arabia's main facility?
At a time when gas prices are higher than they've ever been, CNN Special Investigations Unit explores a hypothetical scenario, but one intelligence experts tell us they are preparing for, about the vulnerability of the world's oil supply. Watch today/tonight at 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. ET.
Western countries have upgraded the food and fuel crisis into a national security concern as they fear record high energy and agriculture commodity costs are destabilising key developing regions of the world.
This shift toward a national security concern will become apparent at today's oil meeting in Saudi Arabia, where ministers are expected to warn that developing countries are cracking under the burden of record oil and food costs.
Disastrous flooding in the US cornbelt this week will be felt worldwide in higher food prices, farmers have warned. The floods have caused damage estimated at billions of dollars and have also dashed hopes of a bumper harvest in the Midwest.
The flooding that has swept through Iowa, Illinois and Missouri may lead to the loss of up to 5 million acres of crops. Some agriculturalists say that by the time the water recedes in the next week or two, it will be too late for crop recovery or replanting.
(And: Iowa faces $3bn crop loss)
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
Video of the most important image ever taken.
Down South, there are legends about things that lurk in the bottomlands. Locals sometimes whisper about something they've encountered in the local woods and swamps...a thing that, according to science and modern sensibilities, shouldn't or couldn't exist.
The Times Archive, now available online, is a window into 200 years of history.
Good news, bad news...
A black hole will appear in mid-July on the border between France and Switzerland, swallowing up first Europe and then the entire planet. Such are the apocalyptic forecasts being made ahead of the scheduled launching, in three weeks, of the Large Hadron Collider. Black holes are expected to appear (or be detected appearing) in the LHC every second or so.
Ophiuchus and the Serpent
Hopefully, you'll have a dark, country sky for today's view. If so, you might catch a glimpse of the constellation Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer. Ophiuchus is the constellation that astrologers forgot. The sun lies within its boundaries for about 2 weeks each year, from November 30 to December 18.
[WAR: Ophiuchus is the 13th constellation in the Zodiac -- just like there's sometimes 13 months in a year, and 13 tribes of Israel.]
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