Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Benedict XVI is inviting Christians to "be not afraid," despite economic shadows hanging over 2009.
"This year closes with the awareness of a growing economic and social crisis that already concerns the entire world. Though not a few shadows are appearing on the horizon of our future, we should not be afraid."
Almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, most Germans are disappointed at what the country has achieved since reunification, a new survey shows.
The Czech Republic took the helm of the European Union on Thursday and tried to allay doubts over its ability to lead with a plan to seek a ceasefire to the deadliest violence in the Gaza Strip in decades.
(And: SARKOZY TO MAKE MIDEAST TRIP)
Vladimir Putin has sent an ominous message to his neighbours, as the global balance of power shifts. In cutting natural gas supplies to Ukraine, the Russians have invoked commercial considerations to cover a nakedly political act.
For more than 40 years I've been watching my own Jewish people in wartime, repeating the same self-defeating pattern over and over.
Most Jews say that they want Israel to be more secure, and they really mean it. Yet they support and vote for leaders who perpetuate the conflicts that make Israel less secure.
The root of the problem lies in the Jews' relationship to the non-Jewish world and, even more, in the way Jews understand that relationship.
(Cartoon: SAME RESOLUTION EVERY YEAR)
As Israel defends its decision to reject the international call for a ceasefire, the air strikes continue apace, though they are running into one obstacle: after 6 days of salvos into the densely populated strip the Israeli military is really running out of interesting things to bomb.
The world waits for Ehud Barak, the defense minister, to send in the tanks and troops as the logic of this operation is pushing inexorably towards a ground war.
Nonetheless, officials have been stalling. Significant ground forces are massed on Gaza's border, but still the talk in Israel is of "exit strategies," lulls and renewed ceasefires.
President Ahmadinejad says the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are proof that Zionists are not true followers of Moses. He said Israeli echelons pretend to be the followers of Prophet Moses but have proved with their violent attacks on Gaza that they have no moral values.
"These minority of criminals and thieves are liars because they represent themselves as followers of the prophet. If Moses had been present today, he would first punish the Zionists for their conduct which is even worse than that of the Pharaoh."
Israel is on heightened security alert today after Hamas declared a "day of wrath" after the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Gaza.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Hamas does not propose to put its entire 15,000-strong army in harm's way against the expected Israeli military invasion.
It will confine its resistance to small pockets and sabotage and let Israel troops occupy most of Gaza Strip territory.
Assuming the incoming force will stop short of conquering Gaza City and put it to siege, Hamas planners believe this siege force will be Israel's Achilles heel.
Egypt would not be surprised if Hamas has a number of rockets in the Gaza Strip capable of reaching Israel's main nuclear power station, an Egyptian intelligence official told WND.
He said he believes Hamas could have rockets that can reach Israel's nuclear plant in Dimona, which is about 40 miles from the Egypt-Gaza border.
(And: There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona. Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group's arsenal.)
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have reportedly clashed with Israeli security forces in protest to Tel Aviv's deadly attacks in Gaza.
Yet another Israeli led and US backed massacre is taking place as the world watches in horror.
The whole Middle East is brewing with resentment in hatred with this action, putting pressure on strained US puppet dictators across the region, such as the recently formed one in Iraq.
Not only are the Middle East client states in danger of disintegration, but Israel is capable of expanding the conflict, as the western corporate media openly talks about Hamas' "enablers" in Lebanon and Iran.
Much attention is being focused on not only Hezbollah's open support of the Palestinians, but on Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who "decreed" that all Muslims have an obligation to defend the Palestinians.
Now, accusations are being made that Iran, Hezbollah, and even China have supplied Hamas with more "sophisticated" missiles.
The undeniable logic here is that Israel would be justified in attacking these countries if they were found — or suspected of — supplying Hamas with weapons or other support useful in a war setting.
A year-end look at trends in the Arab world during the past 12 months reveals little to be optimistic about.
The core weaknesses, distortions and dysfunctionalities of the Arab world all seemed to worsen during the past year.
The recession will hit hard on the home front, but Gordon Brown needs to act to prevent conflicts that could tear the world apart.
When asked how they feel about Barack Obama as commander-in-chief, 6 out of 10 active-duty service members say they are uncertain or pessimistic, according to a Military Times survey.
"I'll be glad to put this year behind us," said a fellow we met at a New Year's Eve party. "What a disaster. I've never seen anything like it."
2008 was the year when the supposedly impossible happened: The world capitalist system underwent a financial breakdown which now threatens to repeat, or even eclipse, that which began in 1929.
And the prospects for the US, the heart of the global economy, have become, in the words of a recent report from the Levy Economics Institute, "uniquely dreadful, if not frightening."
Despite some analyst calls that markets bottomed in November last year, investors should not get too euphoric, as stocks have still a way to go lower, experts tell CNBC.
Renowned financial publication The Economist reports that, based on the characteristics of the current financial crisis, the US is in a depression, not a recession.
The admission marks the first time that a major international financial news outlet has acknowledged that the scale of the economic mess is unlike anything seen in recent decades.
[WAR: I'll have The Economist articles in Sunday's WAR.]
And then it happened: A global economic depression that destroyed the confidence and desire for nations to live in international peace and to promote the welfare of all.
Across the world, nations experienced economic crises and political instability. While some nations succeeded in averting a near economic catastrophe and the rush to war, other countries resorted to new aggressive attitudes and militant movements.
2008 was a year of record misery: the largest bankruptcy, bank failure and Ponzi scheme in US history; $720 billion in writedowns and losses by financial institutions; $30.1 trillion in market valuation wiped out.
The biggest loss and the hardest thing to recover, though, may be something that can't be precisely measured -- confidence in the markets and the firms that rely on them.
Manufacturing activity slumped to multiyear lows in the world's leading economies during December, data released Friday showed, heralding more pain for consumers and businesses and raising the likelihood of further economic stimulus measures from policy makers around the world.
At the capitalist system's core lies its central conflict.
On one side, corporate boards of directors pursue ever more surplus extracted from productive workers.
On the other side, workers seek ever more wages and benefits and better working conditions that reduce the surplus available to employers.
Perpetual class conflict results between capitalists and workers over the size of that surplus.
The contradiction here is one that many capitalists seem unable to see, let alone trace to the class structure of capitalist production and its resulting conflict.
Capitalism's instability is systemic. To address it without considering systemic change is to continue the history of failure to "solve" that instability.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
Researchers found the stress of thinking caused overeating with heavy thinkers seeking out more calories.
[WAR: So be stupid and skinny!]
"Now the evening before (the 4th day of the 10th month) the man arrived, the hand of YAHWEH was upon me, and he opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent. Then the word of YAHWEH came to me..." (Ezekiel 33:22 - 39:29?)
"In the 12th year of our exile, in the 10th month on the 5th day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said: 'The city has fallen!'" (Ezekiel 33:21)
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