Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Benedict XVI reminded participants in an international congress on organ transplants that before vital organs can be extracted from a body, it must be certified beyond a doubt that the donor is truly dead.
He didn't discuss in detail the criteria for true death, but stated that the criteria should not be arbitrary, and that there should be wide consensus in the scientific community.
(And: FULL TEXT OF ADDRESS)
Members of the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission formed by representatives of the Holy See and Israel are making progress in their on-going negotiations, reports the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See.
The embassy revealed today in a press statement that the commission met Thursday in Jerusalem to continue "the negotiations on the economic agreement that affects fiscal and property questions."
The next round of talks will be held in Jerusalem in December.
Nov. 9th has played an important role throughout Germany's history. DW-World takes a look at some important events that took place on that day.
Germany recalled the Night of Broken Glass, when Nazis smashed Jewish-owned shops, ransacked synagogues and killed at least 91 people. Chancellor Merkel said all Germans must act against racism and anti-Semitism.
(Book review: KRISTALLNACHT)
New elections will now be held in Hesse in January 2009. The Christian Democratic Party and the Free Democratic Party are reckoned to be in strong positions for the new election, while the SPD faces, according to polls, declining support.
(And: A MESS IN HESSE)
Chancellor Merkel and Barack Obama agreed in a telephone call to work together to help solve global challenges, a Berlin government spokesman said.
EU foreign ministers will meet to discuss sending troops to resolve the conflict in the Congo. Ulrich Delius, Africa expert at the Society for Threatened Peoples, told DW-World that diplomacy is better than deployment.
It is only when we listen to Obama speaking that we realise just how uncomfortable Europe has been under the Bush presidency.
Europe has split apart in the last 8 years, with some countries uncomfortably following the Washington lead as loyal allies or seekers of influence, while others, equally uncomfortably, have stood aside.
Now Obama's election has brought with it hope that that this internal European rift may be healed. We can embrace the transatlantic alliance again with hope in our hearts rather than fear for the world.
So his election will change Europe too, as well as the United States. This was why it mattered to us who won last Tuesday. And herein lies our problem.
Everyone, from Australia to Kenya, seems to think Obama will improve their lives. They should prepare for disappointment.
When half of mankind seems lifted by hope, nothing looks meaner than to disparage the dream. But what is this Obama mania?
The world did not change for ever on Tuesday. No messiah has come among us. Miracles have not become possible. There is no new dawn.
Calm down dear, it's only a US presidential election.
Growing fears that fractious political leaders are jeopardising Bosnia's future.
The US State Department said Friday the Georgian attack in South Ossetia last August was a mistake.
Europe quietly caves in to agree to new partnership talks with Russia.
Israeli police have had to restore order at one of Christianity's holiest sites after a brawl broke out between monks in Jerusalem's Old City.
Fighting erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Two monks from each side were detained as dozens of worshippers traded kicks and punches at the shrine.
Even as Hamas announced it would not take part in Palestinian unity talks next week, a 3rd voyage of EU lawmakers, activists and journalists challenged Israel's blockage of the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said his government was willing to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
He was asked about Hamas' relations with Iran and his response to the claims of "our Zionist friends" that Hamas, like Iran, seeks to destroy the State of Israel and throw the Jews into the sea
"Our ties with Iran are like those with other Muslim states. Does a besieged people that is waiting breathlessly for a ship to come from the sea want to throw the Jews into the ocean? Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Palestinians should soon have their own state, though she has made it clear she does not expect a breakthrough before Barack Obama moves into the White House.
Representatives of the Mideast Quartet and Arab foreign ministers have begun a meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in Egypt.
The international Quartet opened the two-day meeting this morning in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to evaluate development of the Mideast peace process, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
(And: QUARTET "FAILING" IN MIDEAST)
Saudi Arabia's problems with Syria may be putting the US on a collision course in northern Lebanon that could put it in the untenable position of supporting Sunni Salafists that are linked to al-Qaida.
Royal Dutch Shell oil company and the Iraqi Oil Ministry have struck a secret, as-of-yet non-binding agreement that gives a monopoly over southern Iraq's natural gas to the energy giant.
It marks the first time in over 35 years a Western oil company has played a major role in the country's most lucrative industry.
The Bush administration is to propose a dramatic increase in the size of the Afghan army as it seeks to drive forward the eventual withdrawal of US forces from the war-torn country.
The new Silk Road
Historic bonds between the Middle East and Asia are being revitalized in a torrent of trade and investment in energy, infrastucture and manufacturing.
A grim reminder of the dangers of international engagement.
With the entire world is still celebrating the election of Obama, it may not be the best time for pessimism about the future, such as fears of a possible Israeli attack on Iran in 2 months.
"A possible Israeli strike against Iran is not completely out of the picture," a senior European Union diplomat told Turkish media. "The perfect time (for Israel) is between now and Jan. 20."
IDF operations have been ordered in the interim period between the election of a new American president and his inauguration.
And it is this same period in 2008/09 that provides an "attractive date" for Israel to strike Iran's nuclear program, according to historian Benny Morris. He theorized that Israel would likely strike Iran between November 5 and January 19.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says he has witnessed the torture and abuse of Iranian diplomats by US forces.
"During my detention by US forces, I was held in confinement along with three Iranian diplomats and witnessed their torture by Americans."
Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani slammed Barack Obama for saying Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons was "unacceptable."
"This signifies a pursuit of the same erroneous policy as in the past. Obama understands that change does not only mean a change of colour and superficial differences, change must also have a strategic basis."
The Great Satan's face has changed colour, but no more, as the hardline Kayhan newspaper made clear. "Obama's view on talks with Iran is not strategic, it is a hostile tactic," warned an editorial last week.
The FBI is appealing an order that allows a Utah attorney to conduct taped depositions of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and a death-row inmate.
Nichols and Hammer already have supplied Jesse Trentadue with written affidavits concerning Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the bombing and was executed in 2001.
Nichols claims a high-ranking FBI official "apparently" was directing McVeigh in the plot.
Both Nichols and Hammer, who says he had lengthy conversations with McVeigh while they were both housed at the Terre Haute facility, say McVeigh claimed to be an undercover operative for the military.
(And: THE BND IN OKC?!)
Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.
It has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.
As Barack Obama ascends to the presidency of the US, there still remains a looming cloud above his head like the sword of Damocles.
If and when that sword will fall plunging America into a constitutional crisis depends on a number of desperate and remarkable variables.
The inevitable constitutional crisis regarding Obama, of course, revolves around his inability (or unwillingness) to produce an authentic Hawaiian birth certificate with the raised certificate stamp that the Federal Elections Commission can independently verify.
Unless and until Obama's citizenship question is definitively put to rest, then the proverbial sword of Damocles will continue to dangle precariously over his head and America will face 50 lawsuits from all 50 states demanding that Barack Obama prove that he is an authentic American citizen according to the US Constitution.
(And: "Could it be that Obama be booted out based on his citizenship issues, thus enraging black citizens by dispossessing them, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and leading to riots, civil unrest and martial law...?")
German press
Barack Obama's honeymoon has proven remarkably short. Just a day after celebrating his election as America's 44th president, the real world began to dampen the euphoria. German commentators look at some of the hurdles facing him.
President-elect Obama has fulfilled expectations that he would hit the ground running and has already named the leaders of his transition team and three members of his White House staff.
Some of those appointments come from Obama's own campaign team, but a larger number have a background of service in the Clinton administration.
Change? What change?...
Friend to Wall Street and the murderous imperium, Barack Obama has been anointed with power.
Over the last several decades, as the Democratic party lost its way, becoming a minor wing of the Republican/Business party, the entire political class has become dedicated to concentrating wealth in the hands/pockets of The One Percent.
Will Obama bring about a change in direction? Who knows? There are conflicting signs.
Although it is hard to imagine, Obama's foreign policy could prove even worse than that of the Bush administration.
Obama is a foreign policy novice and will find himself under great pressure to follow Middle Eastern and China and Russia policies inherited from Bush, even though these are what Obama was elected to change or terminate.
Even after Obama takes power, an evil foreign policy ghoul will still hover over the White House – this time wearing the benign clothes of a compassionate angel.
Muscular liberals and neoconservatives hate each other only because they are so much alike.
Although neoconservatives feel less favorable toward any UN or other multilateral veneer for the US, muscular liberals still love to invade other nations for righteous reasons – that is, to save the world or make it more like us.
While Barack Obama and his pick for chief of staff see eye-to-eye on domestic policy, they may find themselves arguing over foreign policy, especially when it comes to Israel, Iraq and Iran.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who served as a captain in the Israeli army, is surprisingly hawkish when it comes to fighting the war on Islamic terror.
In his 2006 book, "The Plan," Emanuel devotes a whole chapter to "the War on Terror," in which he asserts that Democrats should not be afraid to "take the fight to the enemy."
(And: HAIL TO THE CHIEF OF STAFF)
A day after his historic election, Obama appointed Jewish congressman Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff, a move that raised concerns in the Arab world but strongly lauded in Israel.
In rapid response to news of Emanuel's appointement, the editorial in the next day's Arab News (Jeddah) was entitled "Don't pin much hope on Obama -- Emanuel is his chief of staff and that sends a message".
A further contemptuous message is widely rumored to be forthcoming -- the naming as "Special Envoy for Middle East Peace" of Dennis Ross, the notorious Israel-Firster.
[WAR: Some things just never change!:
"The town of Aczib ("deceit") will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel." (Micah 1:14)
"Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite ... married her and lay with her ... She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib ("false") that she gave birth to him." (Gen 38:2-5)
"I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." (Rev 2:9) "... those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars..." (Rev 3:9)]
As one begins to look closely into just who the big players are that are involved in Obama's done deal Presidential election -- who gave support and now who is demanding influence, one can get a good picture from the names swirling as potential picks for top slot positions in the new Obama regime.
The interesting conundrum is that Rahm Emanuel has been apparently offered the position of White House Chief of Staff.
During the Clinton administration, Emanuel was the MOSSAD's Deputy Honcho for North America and he was the control running Mossad agent Monica Lewinsky against Clinton and others in the US government and military.
[WAR: After reading some articles on Friday, and before reading what's in red above, I wondered if "Rahmbo" might really be "Mega." So I did a quick search and found the following:
* Background: "For a brief period of time in early 1997, the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA engaged in a frantic mole hunt for an Israeli spy, believed to be operating inside the highest levels of the Clinton Administration national security establishment.
By the time the mole hunt was made public -- in a May 7, 1997 Washington Post leak -- the hunt had been abruptly ended, and for all intents and purposes, the story disappeared from the news within a matter of days.
According to the Post account, in January 1997, the NSA had intercepted a phone conversation between an Israeli official at the embassy in Washington, and Danny Yatom, the head of the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service.
The official sought permission from the spy boss to 'go to Mega' in order to obtain a copy of a confidential letter that had been sent by then-US Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
Yatom, according to the NSA intercept, rejected the request, admonishing his agent, 'This is not something we use Mega for.'"
* Recent post: "Is Obama's choice for Chief of Staff the Israeli spy Mega? Rahm Emanuel has the right connections in Washington DC and deep personal and family ties to Israel.
During the Clinton presidency he was a close personal advisor to Bill Clinton holding top secret clearance and able to access virtually any document or secret held by the United States."
* Recent post: "Rahm Emmanuel...suspected by many of being 'Mega.'"]
That whole anti-American, friend-to-the-terrorists thing about President-elect Barack Obama? Never mind.
There is a great tradition of paint-peeling political hyperbole during presidential campaign years. And there is an equally great tradition of backing off from it all afterward, though with varying degrees of deftness.
But given the intensity of some of the charges that have been made in the past few months, and the historic nature of Obama's election, the exercise this year has been particularly whiplash-inducing, with its extreme before-and-after contrasts.
Just as "race" has a whole new meaning in America this week, so, too, does "faith."
Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed.
The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?
[WAR: Try something else? How 'bout trying to repent of their pagan ways and begin to follow the truth of the Scriptures?]
Yes!!...
I never cease to be amazed at just how ignorant, naïve, and gullible Christians can be – and especially conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians who profess to be in subjection to the precepts of Scripture. This is especially true when it comes to politics.
Although I am a Christian who loosely identifies with the above persuasions, my authority is the Holy Bible, not the Republican Party, the conservative movement, the pro-life movement, or the Religious Right – and certainly not the Christian Coalition.
Yes, we're dummies. You. Me. All 300 million of us. Clueless. We should be ashamed.
We're obsessed about the slogans and rituals of "democracy," distracted by the campaign, polls, debates, rhetoric, half-truths and outright lies.
McCain? Obama? Sorry to pop your bubble folks, but it no longer matters who's president.
Why? The real "game changer" already happened. Democracy has been replaced by Wall Street's new "disaster capitalism."
That's the big game-changer historians will remember about 2008, masterminded by Wall Street's ultimate "Trojan Horse," Hank Paulson.
Imagine: Greed, arrogance and incompetence create a massive bubble, cost trillions, and still Wall Street comes out smelling like roses, richer and more powerful!
Yes, we're idiots: While distracted by the "illusion of democracy" in the endless campaign, Congress surrendered the powers we entrusted to it with very little fight.
Congress simply handed over voting power and the keys to trillions in the Treasury to Wall Street's new "Disaster Capitalists" who now control "democracy."
Why did this happen? We're in denial, clueless wimps, that's why. We let it happen. In one generation America has been transformed from a democracy into a strange new form of government, "Disaster Capitalism."
Just four months ago, soaring commodity costs were the biggest economic worry as oil raced to a record high.
Now the buzz word is deflation, and that is altering both the economic outlook and the way governments need to respond to the threat of a deep recession.
"But what exactly does this mean — the destruction of 1/4 of the US economy? It means an uncontrollable increase in unemployment, a horrible depression, a sharp increase in the effect of social services on the budget."
The dichotomy between paper and metals, US owes 3 trillion to foreigners, the wiemarization is coming, more banks go belly-up, gold manipulation poses problems for economic stability, consider the recent rallies to be as good as it will get...
Rich countries face their deepest recession since the 1930s. For poorer nations it could still be relatively mild.
A broad-based contraction is well under way in Europe.
EU leaders have agreed on a set of principles that should guide future talks on the reform of the global financial architecture, urging for more regulation and transparency.
President Sarkozy said EU countries were united on Friday ahead of a world summit in Washington on reform of the global financial system, although differences in emphasis remained.
Obama is expected to steer well clear of next weekend's world economic summit in Washington, because he does not wish to upstage Bush.
Obama is wrestling with "back biting" and clashing egos as he tries to find a Treasury Secretary to help him pilot the US out of economic meltdown. He may now delay naming a Treasury Secretary until after next weekend's White House economic summit.
(And: WOLVES AT THE DOOR)
Obama's NOT a socialist!...
In his first public appearance as president-elect, Barack Obama held a press conference in Chicago Friday afternoon after meeting for several hours with a selected group of economic advisers, comprised entirely of bankers, corporate executives and current and former government officials.
The panel had the obligatory gender and racial diversity — 2 black members, 2 Hispanics, 4 women — but not even a semblance of class diversity. There was not a single individual representing workers, the unemployed, consumers, homeowners or those facing foreclosure and homelessness.
The language, in avoiding any criticism of Wall Street speculators and CEOs, is both telling and consistent with the tenor of Obama's election campaign.
As during the campaign, Obama avoids any exposure, let alone condemnation, of the social interests which are responsible for the economic crisis and which underlie the policies of the Bush administration.
Whatever Obama's criticisms of Bush or John McCain, he represents the same class interests -- the financial aristocracy which rules America and subordinates the social and economic life of the country to its drive for personal enrichment.
[WAR: This article is from the World Socialist Web Site, which is published by the International Committee of the Fourth International -- the real socialists. They know what they're talking about when it comes to socialism. So they're able to point out the truth about Obama and what he's really all about.]
Among the captains of industry, spin doctors and financial advisers accompanying British prime minister Gordon Brown on his fund-raising visit to the Gulf this week, one name was surprisingly absent.
This may have had something to do with the fact that the tour kicked off in Saudi Arabia. But by the time the group reached Qatar, Baron David de Rothschild was there, too, and he was also in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Although his office denies that he was part of the official party, it is probably no coincidence that he happened to be in the same part of the world at the right time.
That is how the Rothschilds have worked for centuries: quietly, without fuss, behind the scenes.
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