Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Pope Pius XII appears closer to being put on the road to sainthood after Pope Benedict XVI said the controversial wartime pontiff had "spared no effort" to save Jews from the Nazis.
(And: "Stunning" facts about P12)
(And: Full text of B16 address)
Almost half the voters in Bavaria say they still don't know who they will vote for in regional elections next week, a poll showed, threatening the ruling Christian Social Union's grip on Germany's richest state.
Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September (and running to early October). It is one of the most famous events in the city and the world's largest fair, with some 6 million people attending every year, and is an important part of Bavarian culture.
Former Chancellor Schröder's return to the political stage must be seen in connection with the dramatic intensification of the international financial crisis.
For months, German politicians and business representatives have been warning that the US mortgage crisis was "by no means over."
Alarm bells began to ring in Berlin in March when the US government moved in to bail out Bear Stearns
However, when Lehman Brothers finally collapsed last weekend and Merrill Lynch was hastily sold off, political and economic circles in Berlin were taken by surprise.
Two German spies in Baghdad actively supported the 2003 US invasion of Iraq despite Foreign Minister Steinmeier's denials, opposition parties have said.
Europeans remain strongly religious but like to keep faith out of politics while cultivating an open mind to various forms of spirituality, according to a new survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation.
"The Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe," the survey said. "The role which [religion] plays in tying together the countries of the European Union should not be underestimated."
Russia defied the United States yesterday by announcing plans to sell military hardware to Iran and Venezuela.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said today there was no possibility of a war with the US and Russia wants the EU to guarantee security in Georgia. "Regarding the possibility of war between the United States and Russia, this possibility is ruled out."
Moscow is not bent on world domination, just regional influence.
The ex-president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, stated that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should "use more caution in her call for the West to stand up against Russia, which she said has become "increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad."
Tzipi Livni's narrow victory in the campaign to replace Ehud Olmert reveals deep rifts in Israel. The foreign minister, who stands for reconciliation with the Palestinians, has no clear mandate -- which is a blow to the ailing peace process.
President Ahmadinejad said the Jewish state would not survive in any form. "I have heard some say the idea of Greater Israel has expired. I say that the idea of lesser Israel has expired, too."
President Ahmadinejad took the unusual step on Thursday of explaining that while he strongly opposed the state of Israel, his hostility did not extend to the Israeli people.
"We have no problem with people and nations. Of course, we do not recognize a government or a nation for the Zionist regime. We are opposed to the idea that the people who live there should be thrown into the sea or be burnt. We believe that all the people who live there, the Jews, Muslims and Christians, should take part in a free referendum and choose their government."
The Taliban has laid down the gauntlet to Pakistan's overstretched security forces by opening up a new front in the north of the country.
President Ahmadinejad says Iran seeks a non-permanent UN Security Council membership to make sure of the body's legitimacy. "The reality is that this is not the Security Council of 'the United Nations'. This is the Security Council of 'some nations'."
Major powers meet in Washington today to haggle over a 4th round of UN sanctions against Iran, but tensions with Russia and the US political calendar hang over the timing of any new measures.
Deception and subservience to Wall Street
The devastating crisis that is gripping Wall Street and the world's financial markets is a verdict on this "free market."
The capitalist system, based on private ownership of the productive forces, production for profit and the subordination of all social needs to the accumulation of private wealth, is threatening to unleash a catastrophe upon the working class in the US and around the world.
One thing is certain, the plans to rescue Wall Street that are now being prepared with Democratic support will be paid for by working people, through the destruction of their jobs and living standards and the gutting of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and what little else remains of social benefits in America.
Congressman Ron Paul has issued a stinging address concerning the financial crisis in which he outlines how the current economic problems, created via malinvestment and shift to a debt based economy, are now being mismanaged by private interests in secret.
The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another. What we are witnessing today is how empires end.
An unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.
(And: Why the poker game is ending)
When viewed in a global context, taking into account the instability generated by speculative trade, the implications of this crisis are far-reaching.
The crisis, however, has by no means reached its climax. It could potentially disrupt the very foundations of the international monetary system. The repercussions on people's lives in America and around the world are dramatic.
The crisis is not limited to the meltdown of financial markets, the real economy at the national and international levels, its institutions, its productive structures are also in jeopardy.
(Cartoon: The sky is falling...)
Will future historians write about the Great Depression of the 2000s as they did about the one in the 1930s?
The world's central bankers sought to answer "no" Thursday - resoundingly, though not definitively. With a huge infusion of cash, the US Federal Reserve, joined by its fellow central banks around the globe, unleashed their most forceful volley of financial firepower yet.
(And: Fed needs to shock and awe)
Congressional leaders said after meeting Thursday evening with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that as much as $1 trillion could be needed to avoid an imminent meltdown of the US financial system.
(And: The mother of all bailouts)
(Cartoon: Jump!)
The US Securities and Exchange Commission took what it called "emergency action" today and temporarily banned investors from short-selling 799 financial companies. The temporary ban, aimed at helping restore falling stock prices that have shattered confidence in the financial markets, takes effect immediately.
Global stock markets roared higher today after news of a possible US government plan to rescue banks from toxic mortgage debt raised a collective sense of hope amid the world's worst financial crisis in decades.
The hue and cry is on: who is responsible for the extraordinary turmoil seen on the world's financial markets?
(Op-ed: Who's to blame?)
Something extraordinary is going on with these government bailouts.
Standard monetary tools such as lowering or increasing interest rates can no longer provide quick fixes to the situation for both economic and political reasons. Raising interest rates would compound the mortgage crisis while lowering it would drive the value of the US dollar abroad even lower.
But exercising control over the money supply could also damage the US economy: increasing the supply would lower the dollar's value even more, while decreasing supply would exacerbate the loans crisis.
In any case, control over the money supply would be anathema to US economic policy given the country's 'addiction' to deficit financing and run-away consumerism in recent decades.
Stock markets are plunging and investment banks collapsing. What does this mean for the future of capitalism? Do we need more regulation or, indeed, less? Can bank mergers save the day? Leading economists and analysts give their views.
Everything the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department are trying to do to stem the tide of the self-destructing US financial system is a stopgap.
They are locking the barn door after the horse—many horses—have already escaped, and they know it. They also know the cause of the crisis is not subprime mortgage lending—that was just the trigger.
The latest outgrowth of the US housing crisis, the breakdown on Wall Street, threatens to gradually corrode economic activity on Main Street, mainly by disabling the credit on which so many everyday transactions depend — but also by frightening people.
Lenders of all types in the US had already been raising the bar for borrowers, turning away all but the best customers. This week, they became even less willing to part with their money, further crimping budgets and family spending.
The relationship between Washington and Wall Street has changed fundamentally and as a result, the road ahead is dark and unknown.
As the entire US investment banking industry seems to teeter on the brink of disaster, investors are asking: Where are the Middle East mega-funds, flush with oil money?
The explanation is simple, bankers in the Middle East say: There are plenty of other, more attractive assets vying for the attention of these funds. While no one would rule out entirely the possibility that a Middle East fund will rescue Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, it seems unlikely, they say.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
A number of Islamic associations have put a quick end to their collaboration with a professor -- and trainer of people who are supposed to teach Islam in German high schools -- who has expressed his doubt that Muhammad ever lived.
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