Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit Israel in May, stopping en route in Amman, Jordan, an Italian newspaper reported Tuesday.
Il Foglio, citing sources in the Vatican, said that the pope plans to visit Jordan from May 8 to May 11 and Israel through May 15.
[WAR: During the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How 'bout that...]
Germany has been debating the merits of a possible ban on the far-right NPD party following Saturday's nearly fatal stabbing of the Passau police chief by a suspected neo-Nazi.
Media commentators say the country faces a very real threat from the far right and isn't doing enough to tackle it.
Does the German government simply hate John Maynard Keynes? Or does it just have an enduring and passionate love for Herbert Hoover?
Faced with a once-in-a-generation recession, the government of Chancellor Merkel knows what it is not going to do: spend money like it is going out of style.
At a time when the global benchmark for decisive leadership boils down to the number of zeros that are attached to economic stimulus packages, Germany has taken a different path.
In a speech to the European Parliament, France's president looked back on his country's 6-month term heading the EU.
MEPs debated with the leader on topics including Georgia, the financial crisis and climate change.
Outgoing EU president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday pleaded for a Europe built on strong states as opposed to a federal Europe, arguing that all countries within the EU had the same rights, but maybe not the same responsibilities.
"We shall not build Europe without the [nation] states. As European as you may be, Europe is not the enemy of nations."
President Sarkozy has sparked a diplomatic row by attacking the "wounding and outrageous" refusal of the Czech president to fly a European Union flag from Prague Castle.
A senior Russian military official expressed concern on Tuesday about what he said were US plans to set up military bases in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Barack Obama could be surprised to discover that the first foreign policy challenge he faces may not come from traditional adversaries, such as Iran or Russia, but from a perceived friend, Israel.
A new bomb technology developed by Australia and the US will allow Israel's jet fighter pilots to strike inside Syria or Lebanon without ever leaving their own airspace, should there be another conflict in the region -- changing the dynamics of the Middle East conflict.
The UN Security Council has thrown its support behind a Middle East peace initiative.
But with Israel headed for elections and Palestine instability increasing, the talks are in danger of falling apart.
Israel has made contingency plans for another attack against Lebanon which includes occupying the territory south to the Litani River.
The Israeli daily Jerusalem Post has quoted military sources as saying that the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Army had recently concluded a one-week military exercise as preparations for waging a war on both Syria and Hezbollah.
Damascus has drafted a document defining the boundaries of the Golan Heights and which puts Syria on the northeastern Kinneret shore, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians, a minority people who live principally in northern Iraq, have fled the country under murderous threats from Islamic militants that have grown so bad, a US government entity has now labeled Iraq "among the most dangerous places on earth."
For the first time in living memory, an international spotlight has been focussed on the British Empire's guiding hand behind global terrorism.
It took the stunning 72-hour attack on the Indian port city and financial capital of Mumbai to focus world attention on "Londonistan," the capital of international narcoterrorism.
In league with a network of Saudi Arabian based "charities," Great Britain has been singled out for its role in harboring, recruiting, and financing an alphabet soup of religious, ethnic, racial, and tribal irregular warfare fronts, capable of launching destabilizations-on-warning in every part of the globe.
India on Tuesday kept up the pressure on Pakistan with foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee stating that the composite dialogue process had been paused in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan and China has signed an agreement for military co-operation with a view to taking their bilateral military ties to new heights.
As Barack Obama's national security team assesses the challenge of Iran's role in the Middle East, it confronts a paradox: Iran is seen as having ambitions of regional hegemony, but it lacks the military power normally associated with such a role.
That paradox is explained by the fact that Iran's position in the Middle East depends to a significant degree on its cultural, spiritual, and political ties with other Shia populations and movements in the region.
President Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy was imitating the "arrogant" style of the pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.
President Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that his country will never recognize Israel, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Whoever intends to talk with the Iranian nation should know that Iranians would never recognize the Zionist regime. Iran is ready to hold talks with those urging an end to Israeli crimes, occupation, aggression, ideology and Zionism."
A senior Israeli military officer has repeated threats against Iran, by suggesting that Tel Aviv may attack the country next year.
The foundations of US culture are frozen to the values of 17th century England.
A team of lawmakers in Wyoming, alarmed by WND reports that the US is only 2 state votes away from having a new Constitutional Convention, has begun work to make certain that if a convention is held, it would have to convene in the face of their opposition.
(Op-ed: JUST SAY NO TO A CON CON)
A private investigator has released to WND an affidavit that casts doubt on whether Barack Obama's family lived at the address listed in the published notice of his birth in 1961.
The affadivit is at the center of a federal lawsuit filed prior to the November election in Hattiesburg, Miss., before US District Judge Keith Starrett.
The suit is one of several yet to be adjudicated that calls for proof of Obama being a "natural born citizen" as required by the Constitution.
America Online is conducting a new poll asking readers whether they believe there is any merit to the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's citizenship – and most respondents say "yes."
With nearly 77,000 national votes in the unscientific survery, some might say the poll chart looks somewhat similar to this year's electoral map, except in orange and yellow.
As Barack Obama met with his national security team in Chicago Monday, his appointments drew enthusiastic praise from a most revealing source: the outgoing vice president, Dick Cheney.
The comments of the vice president called attention to the most salient characteristic of the 5-hour meeting convened by Obama on Monday.
The national security group assembled by the candidate of "change" is dominated by very same individuals who are directing national security for the administration of George W. Bush and are responsible for policies that were overwhelming repudiated by the electorate in November.
For 2 years, Americans have heard an unrelenting mantra of change emanating from the campaign trail.
But now that Barack Obama has begun forming his cabinet, we're seeing a cadre of more deeply entrenched insiders than any administration that has preceded it.
[WAR: Changing from Skull & Bones to the Bilderbergers! ... IF he's even sworn-in...]
"We'll be our own harshest critic regarding this incident. and we'll make any appropriate changes to security."
(Cartoon: SECRET SERVICE TRAINING CENTER)
The specter of bankruptcy is hovering over the US economy, both in the fears of failing households and businesses, and in the need to put the entire system through a bankruptcy reorganization before it collapses completely.
This financial system is going down, and the only real question is whether we will have the sense to reorganize it before it disintegrates completely.
What is rapidly falling apart is the whole globalization model, and the post-industrial society.
Having stripped its industrial might in favor of outsourcing production and relying on services, information, and finance to drive our economy, we now find ourselves in deep trouble on every front.
At the same time, the nations to which we shifted our production, notably China, are in deep trouble, as shipping collapses and consumer demand in the US and Europe drops.
The whole world is breaking apart.
President Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from "collapse."
"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."
His comments reflect an extraordinary departure from his longtime advocacy for an unfettered free market, as his administration has orchestrated unprecedented government intervention in the face of a dire financial crisis.
"I am sorry we're having to do it," Bush said
US interest rates were cut to a historic low of virtually 0% as America resorted to drastic action in its battle to stave off a crippling recession and deflation.
The unprecedented move to combat a slump that threatens to turn into a Thirties-style Depression far exceeded a more modest half-point rate cut to 0.5% predicted by experts.
(And: FED THROWS OUT THE RULE BOOK)
(Q&A: US RATE CUT)
(And: DOLLAR FALLS SHARPLY)
(And: ECB FEELS PRESSURE)
Investor Jim Rogers urged people to get out of the dollar and says he expects to be rid of all his US currency assets by summer next year.
It is not yet clear whether America is sliding into a deflation trap but the risk is grave enough to justify radical measures as insurance against a potentially disastrous chain of events.
Bernanke has not run out of ammunition yet. He has a nuclear arsenal, and has begun to use it. The Fed is already buying mortgage debt.
It has infinite means of injecting stimulus into the economy by `quantitiative easing', if needs be. It can ultimately print money and hang it on Christmas trees.
European newspapers all lead with the news of the Fed rate cut, and most of them did not really understand what was going on.
The Fed rate cut is irrelevant, since the Fed only brought the target rate in line with reality.
That reality already started in November, when the Fed allowed the Fed Funds Rate to decline much below the then target of 1%. It went down to almost 0% since.
Yesterday rate cut is merely an official recognition of this fact. The really important news yesterday is the official switch to another monetary regime.
Prime Minister Harper delivered a grim forecast for the Canadian economy, saying in an interview with broadcaster CTV a depression is possible.
The head of the International Monetary Fund urged governments to step up action to stem the global economic crisis or risk delaying a recovery and sparking violent unrest on the streets.
Using a speech last night in Madrid to issue his stark warning, Dominique Strauss-Kahn argued that government efforts to tackle the economic downturn so far have been uncertain and largely insufficient, which could lead to severe consequences.
He singled out the eurozone nations as he attacked the inadequate global response.
Billion-dollar writedowns seem to be on the horizon as some of Europe's largest banks reveal their entanglement in Madoff's mess.
A top Securities and Exchange Commission compliance official who worked for the SEC when it found no problems at Bernard Madoff's firm in 2005, later began to date and married Madoff's niece, who was a compliance lawyer for the company.
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Microsoft is due to issue a patch to fix a security flaw. The emergency patch should be available from 1800 GMT today, Microsoft has said.
Scientists believed in the middle of the 19th century that the human embryo went through all stages of the evolution of the species.
Scientific theories of that time said that the impregnated ovum grows into the freshwater hydroid, turns into the gilled fish, develops into a tailed animal and finally becomes a human being.
It was proved long ago that the hypothesis was incorrect, to put it mildly.
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