Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Puh-leaze!...
For those who suffer and are struggling, the strength to carry on can be found within the smile of the Virgin Mary, says Benedict XVI.
In an address sent for the opening of the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the participants to continue upholding the dignity of each human person and to build a world of "ever greater solidarity, freedom and peace."
The message, sent by Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone on behalf of the pope, is addressed to participants of a prayer meeting being held for the opening of the General Assembly.
The president of the Pontifical Council for Culture has said that evolutionary theory is "not incompatible" with the teachings of the Catholic Church, insisting that the theory of biological change over time was never condemned by the Church.
Bavaria's ruling conservatives are running a clueless election campaign that could cost them their absolute majority in a September 28 state election. That would spell trouble for Chancellor Merkel.
It's not as if the Social Democrats, traditionally weak in Bavaria, are doing well -- they're only at 19% in polls. The protest against a power monopoly in the hands of the Catholic-dominated Christian Social Union is coming from other quarters.
The numerous candidates in line to assume leading positions in the CSU have a strategy for the day after the election. Some, especially those CSU members with posts in Merkel's administration or seats in the federal parliament, say the party should be ready to take a more confrontational stance towards Merkel's CDU to avoid another flop in the general election next year.
In doing so they want to put an end to CSU member of parliament Stefan Müller calls "chronic dissatisfaction with the government among conservative voters." Müller went on to say that if his party were to lose its absolute majority in Bavaria, it would need to "organize itself differently at the national level" -- and that sounds like a threat.
[WAR: This is what needs to happen -- what Franz Josef Strauss always threatened to do: the CSU breaking with the CDU and expanding beyond Bavaria, and becoming a voice for voters across Germany. And this is where Edmund Stoiber (see pic/caption) could make his return.]
The Christian Social Union won't compromise on plans to extend the life of nuclear power stations, Guenther Beckstein, prime minister of Bavaria, said in an interview with Financial Times Deutschland.
Nuclear energy is more important for Bavaria than any other German federal state, Beckstein told the newspaper, and shutting down power stations and then importing energy isn't a sensible solution. Bavaria gets 60% of its energy from nuclear power.
Germany's banking sector has been transformed by an unprecedented wave of consolidation over the last 3 weeks. Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank hope to make themselves more competitive with their respective takeovers of Dresdner Bank and Postbank. But at what price?
The move Lehman Brothers to declare bankruptcy has set off a global earthquake on markets. The crisis is also threatening German financial institutions as well as the country's federal budget.
Chancellor Merkel phoned Prime Minister Putin to discuss energy issues after the US criticized a natural-gas pipeline being built by their countries.
Merkel's spokesman last week reiterated Germany's support for the planned Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany after a US diplomat called for the project to be reconsidered.
The French EU presidency is to put forward a security package at the December summit aimed at relaunching the European security and defence policy with strong links to NATO.
NATO's metamorphosis from Cold War Euro-policeman into the unabashed global military arm of the US over the past 18 years has left a trail of debris from the Balkans to Afghanistan.
It is a flagrant violation of the agreement James Baker III made with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev that the US would not extend the borders of NATO eastwards in return for Moscow allowing a united Germany to be a member of NATO.
President Medvedev signed treaties with Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia today that committed Moscow to defend the breakaway regions from any Georgian attack.
The treaties formalise military, diplomatic and economic co-operation between Moscow and the separatist regions.
(And: Cornering the Bear)
President Medvedev said that Russia should unilaterally claim part of the Arctic, stepping up the race for the disputed energy-rich region.
"We must finalise and adopt a federal law on the southern border of Russia's Arctic zone. This is our responsibility, and simply our direct duty, to our descendents. We must surely, and for the long-term future, secure Russia's interests in the Arctic."
Voting is under way as Israel's ruling Kadima party chooses a successor to its leader, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The front-runners to succeed him are Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Heavily armed militants opened fire on the US Embassy in Sana, Yemen, and detonated a car bomb at its gates, in an attack that left at least 16 people dead including 6 of the attackers.
The attack was especially shocking to many Yemenis because it came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Bush administration in its waning months seems intent on a slo-mo launching of a 3rd war in the border regions of Pakistan.
Almost every day now news trickles out of intensified American strikes in the Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghan border; and there is a drumbeat of threats of more to come.
All of this, in turn, is reportedly only "phase 1" of a 3-phase Bush administration plan in which the American military "gloves" would "come off."
The American war that already stretches from Iraq to Afghanistan is threatening to widen in ways that are potentially incendiary in the extreme.
(Breaking: US raid kills 4)
Money and a hatred of foreigners are motivating a new generation of Afghan fighters.
Military planners in India are eyeing a crucial junction of the world which serves as the conduit for 80% of China's imported oil.
The Strait of Malacca, where the Indian Ocean joins the Pacific, is seen as China's Achilles' heel. These shipping lanes, vital for Beijing's energy supplies, could be the setting for any future confrontation between India and China.
If these tensions were ever to boil over into war, India would probably exploit a crucial advantage. Its navy, which eventually plans to deploy 3 aircraft carriers and 2 nuclear-powered attack submarines, would probably seek to close the Strait of Malacca to Chinese shipping through an increased presence.
By cutting off the supply of oil, this could cripple China and prove the decisive move in any conflict.
The official IRNA news agency says Iran's top leadership has given full powers to the elite Revolutionary Guards as the sole military force in charge of defending the country's territorial Persian Gulf waters.
The decision represents a hardening of Iran's position by giving sole responsibility to the hard-line Guards in the strategic waterway.
"We have no other choice than to work in the days and weeks to come toward a new Security Council sanctions resolution," said the French Foreign Ministry spokesman. However, Russia and China would likely resist a 4th round of sanctions.
The 'Zionist regime' lacks the diplomatic, economic and social ability to launch a wide-scale war, President Ahmadinejad's senior military advisor stated Tuesday.
The Iranian nuclear crisis may have crossed the point of no return while the threat of nuclear terrorism is on the rise, according to a panel of experts on proliferation.
These somber assessments were voiced Monday during a seminar on nuclear capabilities hosted by the European Jewish Congress in Brussels.
"Only military action can stop Iran, or else Iran will acquire nuclear weapons to the great detriment of regional and even global stability."
The Pentagon will test new 'bunker-busting' bombs capable of obliterating underground nuclear facilities, a report says. An analyst told the paper that the MOP project appears to be directed at attacking Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain.
"This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like (Obama). I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him."
Forester is the CEO of EL Rothschild, a holding company with businesses around the world. She is married to international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.
[WAR: Huh?!! A Rothschild not liking someone because they're an elitist?! Go figure. No, there's something a lot more to this endorsement.]
"My God, does she really believe in God, just like those jihadists we are supposed to be fighting?"
Fortunately for the American electorate, there is nothing much that the British commentariat can do to prevent its worst nightmare from becoming a reality: Sarah Palin sworn in as President of the United States, dining with the Queen at a state banquet.
Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies?
The American Dream is long gone. The expectation of rising living standards for each generation of workers has given way to a low-wage economy in which young workers will struggle just to match their parents' income -- and are increasingly likely to end up worse off.
Russian markets stopped trading for a 2nd day after emergency funding measures by the government failed to halt the biggest stock rout since the country's debt default and currency devaluation a decade ago.
The government yesterday injected $20 billion into the interbank lending market via central bank and Finance Ministry auctions in a bid to contain soaring borrowing rates as credit dried up in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
Federal Reserve Board policy makers kept their benchmark lending rate unchanged at 2%, highlighting the conflicting pressures of an epic financial crisis and nagging inflation.
US Treasury 3-month bill rates dropped to the lowest since at least 1954 on concern that credit market losses will widen.
Acting to avert a possible financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve Board reversed course Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the US government an ownership stake in the troubled insurance giant American International Group.
The decision is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank's history.
(And: WSWS report)
This is a lot bigger than a simple bail-out, or a large bridging loan. The US government yesterday nationalised AIG and injected $85bn into the ailing insurance company to keep it afloat.
The loan is to be repaid through the sale of operating companies (who are they kidding? They are not going to raise so much in a firesale in the current financial climate).
The European Central Bank is fighting desperately against the financial crisis. The institution offered banks €70 billion in liquidity loans on Tuesday, bringing the global total offered by central banks that day to €112 billion.
(And: Europe's banks at risk)
Berlin has ordered an inquiry into reports that Germany's federal-government bank handed over $420 million to Lehman Brothers only hours before they failed, a newspaper said today.
German press
The US government's refusal to bail out Lehman Brothers could herald the beginning of a painful but overdue flushing out of the financial sector. By letting Lehman collapse, German commentators argue, Washington is giving banks a choice: Clean up your own mess or go under.
(Cartoon: I broke the bank)
(Cartoons: Wall Street collapse)
Billionaire investor George Soros has slammed US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for behaving in the same manner as bankers in the 1930's and mishandling a financial crisis that threatens a repeat of the Great Depression.
Soros told BBC Newsnight that the world was merely at the beginning of a financial storm.
(And: Largest crisis in 100 years)
"Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another one gone. Another one bites the dust."
The race towards global expansion created dangerously overconfident behemoths of banking. Now caution and sense will reassert themselves.
Have we reached a turning point in the credit crisis with the bankruptcy of Lehman or is this just the start of worst times to come?
(And: Crisis and capitalism)
(And: The Fed's failure)
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer hastily invited the heads of the country's banks to a meeting this morning to examine their exposure to the world financial crisis and ask how they will deal with the problem.
The crisis continued to drag down world markets - in 2 days more than $1 trillion in value has been wiped out.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers has seen the price of oil fall back to $90 a barrel for the first time in 7 months.
[WAR: I saw a story yesterday about how the decline in the price of oil is hurting Russia. It's also hurting all other oil exporters, especially Iran and Venezuela. So could the price actually be being forced down in an economic war with these countries? And could they not also reason that it would be better for oil to go up from $90 -- or lower -- than from $150, when Iran is finally attacked?]
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