Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Spreading the filth...
"The reflection of a wise man on what's most important in life" -- that's how the Azbuka publishing house has introduced Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth" in its Russian translation. The 20,000-copy first printing was presented Tuesday in Moscow.
Archbishop Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States yesterday participated in a ceremony, held in Oslo, Norway, to sign a Convention prohibiting the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions.
A German court has rejected a compensation claim for thousands of acres of family land by the grandson of a German aristocrat who took part in a 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Germany's upper house of parliament passed the government's $41 billion stimulus plan, rebuffing calls by Chancellor Merkel's Bavarian allies to spend more to combat the recession in Europe's biggest economy.
Bavaria's state government led by the Christian Social Union circulated a statement to fellow members of the upper house, the Bundesrat, where Germany's 16 states are represented, urging them to reject the bill as "not doing enough" to help the economy climb out of the worst recession in 12 years.
On Monday British Prime Minister Brown, President Sarkozy and EU Commission President Barroso are meeting for crisis talks on the economic crisis. Not on the guest list: Chancellor Merkel.
Germany has come in for fierce criticism in some European capitals for its reluctance to adopt more aggressive measures to deal with the looming economic crisis.
Now 3 of the biggest advocates of Europe-wide anti-recession measures are to hold crisis talks in London with European business leaders and Chancellor Merkel is not invited.
And there is also snipping from within Merkel's own conservatives. Bavarian Governor Seehofer of the Christian Social Union has called on the chancellor a number of times this week to cut taxes immediately.
In Brussels, Paris, Washington and other capitals, one increasingly hears the same complaint: Germany is acting unilaterally.
On a broad range of issues, the Germans seem to think THE EU NO LONGER ADVANCES THEIR INTERESTS AND ARE MORE PRONE TO GO THEIR OWN WAY.
Germany's foreign policy has evolved in a manner that leaves the EU – and perhaps the Atlantic alliance – weaker.
The German military commissioned its first spy-in-the-sky satellite system on Thursday, enabling it to peek through clouds or the darkness of night at any spot on the planet.
The German Navy warded off a suspected piracy attack on a German cruise ship in the Gulf of Aden, a spokesman for the mission commando has confirmed.
Germany has troops in the area to combat piracy.
"I'm proud to be a Catholic and I go to mass 3 times a week. My friends don't believe in God, but to me He's very important. I'm from an Opus Dei family, you see."
It provided an illuminating insight into the complexities of my subject - the competition between the Catholic Church and Spain's Socialist government to impart values to the nation's youth.
The NATO meeting of foreign ministers held Tuesday and Wednesday this week in Brussels delivered a renewed rebuff to the US over the issue of membership in the organization by Georgia and Ukraine.
Germany, in alliance with the French and Italian foreign ministers, was able to repel US pressure over the issue of NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, but Washington was able to win agreement for US plans to install an anti-missile defense shield in Europe despite the vehement opposition of Russia.
Despite the concessions made to the US over its missile defence shield, it is clear that the NATO summit in Brussels represented a new milestone in the growth of tensions between the great powers on either side of the Atlantic.
In Berlin, Paris, and Rome there is growing political pressure that European governments free themselves from the grip of US imperialism in order to pursue their own interests.
The Dalai Lama has urged the EU to stand firm on the issue of human rights in order to protect the long-term interests of the Chinese people.
He is due to address the European Parliament and meet the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, this week.
In response, the Chinese government has cancelled its annual summit with the EU, warning that the meeting would put relations at risk.
Beijing raised the spectre of trade sanctions against France to threaten President Sarkozy's plan to meet the Dalai Lama.
President Medvedev on Saturday will stop in Bari, in southern Italy, where Italian President Napolitano is expected to hand over the keys to a Russian Orthodox Church complex that has belonged to Italy for decades.
The keys will be handed over on St. Nicholas' Day, a holiday honoring the saint, who is important in both Orthodox and Catholic traditions and whose relics are kept near the complex.
The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II died this morning at age 80, the press service of the Moscow Patriarchy said.
The church's ruling body, the Holy Synod, is due to gather for an urgent meeting in Moscow on Saturday following the patriarch's death.
The United States will quickly feel a change in attitude from Moscow if Barack Obama transforms Washington's policies toward Russia, Prime Minister Putin said.
"Usually... when there is a change of power in any country, and even more so in a superpower such as the United States, some changes occur. We very much hope that these changes will be positive. We are now seeing these positive signals."
Around 20 people were injured when Israeli security forces staged a lightning fast eviction operation on a disputed house occupied by Right-wing Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
(Video: HEBRON HOUSE CLASHES)
As in past clashes such as the Gaza disengagement and the Amona evacuation, settlement rabbis were split on whether force should have been used against security troops to try to prevent the evacuation of the disputed Beit Hashalom building in Hebron.
The Syrian ambassador to Egypt has left Cairo in what some observers note is an indication of tension in Syrian-Egyptian relations.
Saudi Arabia is preparing for a record turnout at the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
More than 100,000 security guards have been deployed to cope with the 3 million people expected in the city of Mecca, when the Islamic pilgrimage gets under way on Saturday.
The Hajj is one of the world's biggest displays of mass religious devotion.
It is a religious duty for every able-bodied Muslim with the necessary financial resources to make the pilgrimage at least once during their lifetime to cleanse their sins.
Obama's appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state is causing Arabs & Israelis to adjust their expectations.
Cautiously, Israelis are applauding Clinton's all-but-certain nomination as a sign that Obama can be trusted to act firmly against Iran's nuclear ambitions and to refrain from pressing Israel to accept a weak, violence-prone Palestinian state on its borders.
Arabs, and especially Palestinians, say the news has dampened their optimism that Obama will veer from the Bush administration's hawkish policies and from what they call America's long-standing pro-Israel tilt.
It seems unlikely that Barack Obama as a long-time advocate of strikes into Pakistan's tribal areas would consider reversing the Bush Administration's relatively recent policy of unilateral air strikes.
Yet the Pakistani government is hoping to convince Obama to do just that, even raising the possibility that if the strikes continue, Pakistan's military may begin shooting down American drones.
Attacks on Mumbai have fueled concerns that rising tension with India will divert Pakistan's attention from fighting insurgents in its western tribal areas who are infiltrating Afghanistan to stage attacks on US, NATO and Afghan forces.
Here are some potential consequences of the Mumbai attacks for the Afghanistan war and the fight against al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
India has proof of the involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency in last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai but will not level a public accusation because the ensuing tension in bilateral relations would play into the hands of those responsible for the incidents, authoritative sources claimed here on Thursday.
The sources said that India did not believe the civilian government in Pakistan was involved in the incidents.
A threat?!...
A Pakistani scientist who has worked to develop his nation's nuclear weapons says the missiles are on rocket launchers and can be fired in 10 minutes.
"None of India's cities can remain safe from our missiles. Pakistan's width is less than India's, which is 1,200 to 1,400 kilometers. Therefore, no corner of India is safe from the Shaheen II. We have also developed cruise missiles, and Pakistan is the 4th country in the world to have cruise missiles."
Is Pakistan responsible for the Mumbai attack in India? No.
Is India's repression of its Muslim minority responsible? No.
Is the United States government responsible? Yes.
Government teaches by example, and America's example is lawlessness.
America's brutal crimes against the Muslim world have invited every Muslim to become a law unto himself – a revolutionary.
It is not terror that Washington confronts but revolution.
Iran calls on Barack Obama to pursue an approach different from those of previous White House administrations.
"Washington's old and inefficient policies toward Iran and the Middle East no longer yield results," said Iran's parliament speaker.
Today the United States is the essential nation, the unipower, the sole superpower, the country whose government, like God, worries if a sparrow falls to earth somewhere around the globe.
The result of Washington's determination to meddle in every issue in every nation hasn't been pretty.
The history of the US, a relatively new nation compared to so many states, is extraordinary.
No other tribe, people, state, or empire has risen so quickly to global influence, let alone dominance.
The result is enormous opportunity and responsibility.
Unfortunately, Washington often has misused its power, with horrendous results. Although more frequently the result of incompetence than malevolence, America's misbegotten interventions have resulted in casualties circling the globe.
(Because: THE UNITED STATES IS MANASSEH!)
Uh-oh...
With less than 2 months remaining in office, President Bush is reported by a number of well-placed sources in Washington as drinking heavily.
The Supreme Court will get a first look today at a little bomb with the potential to make a big noise.
The operative word is "potential." Almost nobody thinks the justices, who can read election returns as well as the law, will light the fuse.
The Supreme Court will soon receive urgent requests to determine whether Barack Obama meets natural-born citizenship requirements under the US Constitution – in the form of more 60,138 letters.
The shipment includes 6,682 FedEx packages of 9 letters each that will be delivered before the court reviews a case today challenging the eligibility of Obama.
(And: KEEP SIGNING THAT PETITION!)
Barack Obama is "feigning" a centrist position on some issues so he can ultimately push through a radical agenda, including universal healthcare and trimming the military, according to analysis by a founder of the Weathermen terror group, Mark Rudd, who has ties to Obama mentors.
Another top former Weathermen terrorist with ties to Obama mentors, Jeff Jones, concurred the president-elect will attempt major change, including "redistributing financial resources downward."
He called Obama's "centrist" appointments a "smokescreen" to "co-opt the moderate center," declaring, "even Lenin would be impressed!"
I'm amused when conservatives who once described Barack Obama as the spawn of Satan suddenly begin praising his Cabinet choices.
Barack Obama has broken his first campaign promise by quietly dropping a profits windfall tax on oil companies that he promised on the campaign trail.
Obama's national security appointees (like all his earlier ones) aren't "change to believe in" or what people expected for their votes. They're recycled establishment figures.
Their agenda is business as usual, and they'll continue the same failed Bush administration policies at home and abroad. Washington's criminal class is bipartisan.
Obama was chosen to lead it and is assembling a rogue team that's little different from the one it's replacing.
Barack Obama was elected on a platform of change. Yet, his actions are pointing to more and more of the same.
Obama's turn to the Zionist, militarist wing of the US ruling class in recent weeks negates the interest and support he showed for the Palestinian cause while a Chicago community organiser during the 1990s and to the anti-war movement when Bush attacked Iraq 5 1/2 years ago.
That's the response from the "antiwar" wing of the Democratic party to Obama's Iraq sellout
Is it really possible that Barack Obama intends to break his campaign promise to "end the war" in Iraq, and keep US troops in that country well beyond the 16-month timetable for withdrawal he advocated during the campaign?
The retention of Gates, the appointment of Hillary the Hawk, the "team of rivals" gambit that is supposed to inoculate Obama against criticism from the pro-war right – this pre-inaugural political drama is a dress rehearsal for betrayal.
Antiwar voters, who put Obama in office, are about to get screwed – and their alleged spokespersons, at least amongst the left-wing punditariat, are bending over with alacrity.
Leaked DOJ memos shed new light on the role of Barack Obama's Attorney General nominee Eric Holder in the cover-up of the death of Kenneth Trentadue, who was tortured to death by FBI agents after they confused him with one of Timothy McVeigh's accomplices in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Trentadue's brother, Jesse, has embarked on a fearless campaign to uncover the truth behind his brother's death, and the evidence that he has gathered in the process clearly indicates that the FBI have been killing witnesses who have direct knowledge of the fact that the Oklahoma City bombing could not have gone ahead without the aid of FBI informants and that the government had prior knowledge of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah building at least 4 months in advance.
During the process of his lawsuit, Trentadue was able to receive documents with names blacked out that show the FBI's OKC bombing informants were conducting armed robberies with Timothy McVeigh in order to fund the construction of the fertilizer bomb used in the attack on the federal building.
"One of the foreign informants was actually the explosives instructor who taught him how to make the bomb," said Trentadue.
The new twist to the story revolves around Trentadue obtaining leaked DOJ memos that indicate a flurry of activity around how to handle the cover-up of the death of his brother.
A key player in the cover-up was Eric Holder, who earlier this week was named by Barack Obama as the nominee to become Attorney General in January subject to confirmation.
(And: THE BND IN OKC?!)
The leader of the US Strategic Command said yesterday that "time is not on our side" to modernize the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.
"The path of inaction is a path leading toward nuclear disarmament. ... The time to act is now," Air Force Gen. Chilton told an audience of government, military and civilian arms experts attending the Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Harper suspended Canada's parliament to avoid a challenge from opposition parties that were planning to oust him from power.
Harper is a far right conservative ideologue who served as president of the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative think-tank and advocacy group.
He has been a staunch supporter of George Bush and the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many of his critics accuse him of being a neoconservative allied to the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderburger Group.
He is alleged to be a proponent of plans for a North American Union, which is an elitist scheme to end US sovereignty by merging the 3 countries -- Canada, the US, and Mexico -- into one superstate.
US employers axed 533,000 jobs in November, the biggest monthly cut in 35 years, the US Labor Department said.
In a dramatic indication of the worsening situation in the economy, the US jobless rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7% from 6.5% in October.
Since these latest figures were compiled, further jobs losses have been announced, including big cuts at AT&T.
"This was much worse than was expected and represents wholesale capitulation. The threat of a widespread depression is now real and present," said a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business.
Oil prices have fallen to fresh 4-year-lows. US light sweet crude for January fell to $42.05 a barrel, before recovering slightly to trade down $1.31 at $42.36. London Brent crude was trading down $1.20 at $41.08.
(And: OIL TO HIT $25?! and GAS TO HIT $1?!)
Just as every society has a creation myth, banking is now busily writing a destruction myth that seeks to explain and soothe in a world torn to its foundations.
The myth, as expounded by regulators, bankers and their various service providers, is that we were hit by a perfect storm, a 1,000-year flood so unpredictable that we could not possibly be held accountable for it. An act of God, rather than the folly of man.
Top US and Chinese finance officials met yesterday and today in Beijing to discuss actions that each country ought to take to ease the global economic crisis — the latest in a series of US-Chinese gatherings dubbed the Strategic Economic Dialogue and meant to encourage coordination between the world's 1st- and 4th-largest economies.
Chinese officials were unusually blunt as the session opened.
China's central bank governor blamed "the US financial crisis" on "excessive consumption and high leverage," telling the US delegation that Washington needed to "raise its savings rate and reduce its trade and fiscal deficits."
The Bank of England is working on radical plans to inject cash directly into the economy - the nuclear option to be used only when interest rates approach 0%.
The main obstacle is that the policy could be found to conflict with EU laws on how governments manage their budgets.
At times like this - with central banks dropping interest rates to unprecedented levels - it is tempting to say the textbooks are being dusted down for a hint about what to do next.
But the truth is that there are no textbooks for this kind of situation. The world's great central banks are in uncharted territory.
The big interest rate cuts by the UK and European central banks are as essential as the colossal cuts made last month, and equally belated.
Europe is facing the sort of deflationary Frankenstein that has long dogged Japan.
A severe and unexpected deflation at any time can have serious consequences, but the consequences will be worse for an economy that has adapted to inflation.
Retailers delivered the biggest drop in monthly sales in over 3 decades, an echo of their dismal October performance, as jittery consumers were pinched by the recessionary economy.
This holiday season may shake out to be retailers' nightmare, with their worst combined November and December on record.
These auto execs don't deserve a dime. Fire all of them, and take over the industry for the good of the workers, the country and the planet.
(Cartoon: US AUTO MAKERS CRASH)
(Cartoon: BIG 3 ON THEIR KNEES)
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A cup of strong coffee might make you feel wide awake, but a small study suggests that for improved physical and mental performance, an afternoon nap works better.
The Nobel Prizes will be awarded 12/10/08 including one for the establishing of HIV as the cause of AIDS. Yet the 1984 paper published by Science magazine has been revealed as fraudulent.
Hmmm...
A number of enigmatic objects seen on the Martian surface.
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