Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
B16'S Q&A WITH PARISH PRIESTS (Part 3)
In an interview with the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, Gennaro Auletta, professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University has said that the teachings of the Church and Darwinism are not in complete opposition.
The Italian expert asserted that the Church "has never adopted an attitude of condemnation" towards Darwinism."
"This is one of the many reasons that in my opinion make all the efforts to recover or rehabilitate Darwin superfluous, because neither the Catholic Church nor her most important exponents have ever condemned Darwinism or the theory of evolution."
MIDEAST PRIEST EXPLAINS ISLAM (Part 2)
German raw iron and steel production plunged in February as industrial output fell and manufacturing orders extended the worst decline on record.
COALITION PARALYZED (scroll down)
The Grand Coalition is effectively coming to an end.
In a 6-hour marathon meeting they only reached a minimal consensus on stricter rules for manager salaries while other important decisions were postponed or abandoned for after the elections.
The FT Deutschland writes that given the actual need for crisis management this is really bad news.
Chancellor Merkel's governing coalition appears to be weakening as the general elections approach. The country's 2 leading political camps can find little common ground -- despite the fact they may have to re-marry this autumn.
"One can see the beginning of the end of the grand coalition," said Peter Ramsauer, a leader of the Christian Social Union.
One of the hottest issues in German politics right now has "Made in America" stamped on it.
The crisis at General Motors threatens to drag down Opel, a storied German brand that GM bought 80 years ago on the eve of the Great Depression.
Many in the industry believe Opel has a future only if it can get a temporary helping hand from the German government.
But whether Chancellor Merkel will make available the public financing needed to help release Opel from the clutches of GM is now a murky, highly politicized question involving a reluctant government, an influential automotive union that wants politicians to save jobs and employees who yearn to re-establish Opel as an independent German company.
The EU is becoming increasingly frustrated with General Motors, the owner of a number of struggling car companies in Europe, accusing it of attempting to exploit a lack of EU co-ordination to secure greater financial support.
Belgian minister Van Quickenborne said the EU must "clearly tell GM that it can not play one country off against another in an attempt to raise the stakes."
All but a few of the EU's 27 member states have ratified the Lisbon Treaty, which is aimed at streamlining EU institutions.
But the controversial treaty will not come into force unless all of them do so - and it still has to run the gauntlet of a 2nd Irish referendum later this year.
Here, as part of a series of viewpoints on EU issues, 2 European think-tank experts argue for and against the treaty.
What is so dangerous, and different, this time, is that France and Germany do not at the moment see eye to eye at all.
France's conservative government will face a no-confidence vote in parliament later this month over contested plans to return France to NATO's military command, the prime minister said Thursday.
President Sarkozy wants to return France to NATO's military command. Many leftist lawmakers and some in Sarkozy's conservative ruling party oppose the idea, saying it could threaten France's diplomatic and military independence.
With Hillary Clinton's visit to Brussels, Washington is set to begin its European charm offensive.
Obama and Biden also plan to visit the Continent soon, but many Europeans remain uncertain whether the trans-Atlantic climate has really changed all that much.
There is a leadership crisis in the world and America and the European Union must take the lead in addressing it, Hillary Clinton told an audience of young Europeans in Parliament today.
EU Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, who described Clinton as a "leader of vision" at a time that the world needs such leaders, also hinted that a new era is beginning in EU-US relations.
Avigdor Lieberman seems set to join Netanyahu's would-be coalition government, putting the role of foreign minister in the hands of one of these least diplomatic figures in all of Israeli politics.
Incredibly, having apparently gained one of the most significant positions in the Israeli government, Lieberman is already asking for more: reportedly seeking "full autonomy" over all foreign ministry affairs.
One source said the latest demand was an effort to prevent former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom from being given the role of negotiating with Syria.
The major Jewish organizations' policy of supporting Israel's democratically elected government while remaining loyal to their home countries could be sorely tested in the coming months.
Israel has carried out a military exercise in the occupied Shebaa farms, along its northern border with Lebanon.
Illusions die hard. Especially the ideological kind.
When the illusion of Barack Obama, the peacemaker, is finally dispelled, we are going to wake up and find ourselves waist-deep in a war that will soon threaten to dwarf the disastrous invasion of Iraq, both in human and material cost.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has been raising its flags and deploying its military in areas outside of their official borders.
Pakistani efforts to combat Islamist extremists in northwestern Pakistan have had mixed results, partly because some military units were shifted to the eastern border with India, the US Defense Department said.
The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is a victory for the court's top prosecutor. But the chances that the case will ever come to trial are slim.
(And: WORLD DIVIDED ON WARRANT)
Europe and North America stand behind the decision of the ICC to indict Bashir for war crimes. But many governments -- and many German commentators -- fear the situation in Darfur may now get worse.
(And: A MILLION FACE STARVATION)
Now for the truth of the matter...
The West is trying to legalize the dismemberment of Sudan. The Sudanese president has been charged with crimes against the tribes of Darfur.
Enormous crude deposits were found on the territories where 3 Darfur tribes reside.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ratcheted up bellicose US rhetoric against Iran Wednesday, accusing the country of funding "terrorism" and interfering in the internal affairs of states throughout the Middle East.
Her statements coincided with the release of a report by a Washington think tank with ties to the Obama administration suggesting that the US should establish a "nuclear umbrella" over the region.
The Queen is to give Barack Obama a private "getting-to-know-you" audience next month. Her Majesty will meet him in advance of an economic summit in London.
The private meeting is highly unusual because Obama will not be on a State visit. But advisers believe it is important the Queen meets him before any official trip.
You've got to be kidding me!...
Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has referred constituents raising concerns over Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office to an online "fact" organization that relies for its answer partly on information from the Obama campaign.
"Thank you for your recent e-mail. Senator Obama meets the constitutional requirements for presidential office. Rumors pertaining to his citizenship status have been circulating on the Internet, and this information has been debunked by Snopes.com, which investigates the truth behind internet rumors."
Presidents have been using teleprompters for more than half a century, but none relied on them as extensively as Obama has so far.
While presidents typically have used them for their most important speeches to the nation, Obama uses them for everyday routine announcements, and even for the opening statement at his news conference.
A rarity in Washington, the secret was well kept until the announcement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.
His deputy as chairman of the National Intelligence Council is Charles "Chas" W. Freeman Jr., a Chinese-speaking iconoclast with a brilliant analytical mind that is anathema to the Israel lobby and the neocons.
Lucky for former Ambassador Freeman that Judaism, in contrast to Christianity, does not believe in mortal sins. But his sin is beyond redemption in Washington.
Freeman is convinced that US and Israeli strategic interests are not necessarily one and the same.
This triggered a cascade of epithets from "Saudi puppet" to "Chas of Arabia linked to Saudi cash" to "China-coddling, Israel-basher."
The "leader of the Republican Party" question has been thoroughly analyzed and debated.
And after many days and many cable news roundelays, I think we can all agree that, yes, the GOP has been inextricably grasped within the meaty, sweaty mitts of that familiar planetoid of addiction, racism and self-indulgence known as Rush Limbaugh.
The Republican Party has become the purview of The Dittohead: the thoughtless undead automaton who lazily yet proudly announces on the radio that he or she doesn't simply "ditto" but, in fact, "mega-dittos" everything spoken by Rush Limbaugh.
This massive bloat in government regulation (and taxpayer expense to support it) would add additional cost and headache to every farm, fishing boat, restaurant, slaughterhouse, processing plant, CO-OP and anyone else associated with growing, storing or processing food.
The bill authorizes fines of up to $1,000,000 for "each act" and for "each day" of a violation.
During his 2 terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government.
Thus, the groundwork was laid for an imperial presidency and a potentially totalitarian government -- a state of affairs that has not ended with Obama's ascension to the Oval Office.
The local police have, in many regards, already evolved into de facto extensions of the military. Dressed like Darth Vader look-alikes, the police have opted for the SWAT-team dress formally adopted by the federal agencies.
Two of Mexico's deadliest drug cartels have reached a combined force of 100,000 foot soldiers, wreaking havoc across the country and threatening US border states, the US Defense Department told The Washington Times.
The cartels rival the Mexican army in size and have both Mexico and the US in crisis mode as they deal with what they fear is a coming insurgency along the border.
"It's moving to crisis proportions," an unidentified defense official told The Times.
Are US vital interests more threatened by what happens in Iraq or Afghanistan than in the war raging along our southern border?
Prediction: After all US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a US army on the Mexican border. For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided.
A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the American River.
Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects.
With America's economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California's state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed.
Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site.
The nation's jobless rate jumped to 8.1% in Febuary and payrolls dropped by 651,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported today.
For millions of Americans, the deepening recession has meant a dramatic drop in funds put aside for their retirement.
While many have seen the value of these accounts slashed in half, the pensions of others have been rendered virtually worthless as their employers file for bankruptcy.
For others, a layoff in the family spells disaster, and saving for retirement is out of the question.
(And: BABY BOOMERS GOING BUST)
What is undermining General Motor's attempts to avoid bankruptcy — overwhelmingly at the cost of its workers — is the reality of a global breakdown of the capitalist system, which is driving up unemployment and driving down auto sales even as the credit markets remain frozen and the banking system unravels.
The collapse of GM is a concentrated expression of the crisis of the profit system as a whole.
The crisis of GM and the auto industry as a whole underscores the anarchy and irrationality of capitalism -- in which production is carried out for private profit, not human need.
Obama believes he can change US politics for a generation. If he's wrong he could bankrupt the whole country.
In his big speech to Congress last month, Obama argued for bold steps to fix America's dysfunctional banks. Many analysts agreed.
But among people I talk to there's a growing sense of frustration, even panic, over Obama's failure to match his words with deeds.
The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern.
One day it's fear over the banking industry, the next days it's fears over the future of General Motors. After a brief rally yesterday, global stock markets sank to new recent depths, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing a notch below 6,600.
(Cartoon: WHAT RECESSION SHAPE?)
The US government rescued giant insurer American International Group in part because its collapse would dramatically hurt European banks, a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.
The European Central Bank has cut interest rates a half point to an historic low of 1.5% and opened the door for extreme measures akin to the quantitative easing underway in America, Britain, and Japan.
Bond yields plummeted across the eurozone as the markets instantly priced in further monetary loosening.
None of the eurozone's 16 central banks have ever seen interest rates this low.
The cut follows a collapse in industrial production over the last 5 months. The pace of deterioration has been faster than the early 1930s.
The ECB has torn up its growth forecast for this year and expects an unprecedented contraction 2.7% for the eurozone. Even this may prove optimistic.
Output fell 1.5% in the 4th quarter and the picture seems to be going from bad to worse.
The suspicion is that a German led bloc of ECB hawks are dragging their feet in part because quantitative easing measures would blur the lines between the bank and the fiscal authorities.
This risks opening a can of worms in euroland where there is no single treasury. ECB bond purchases would be tantamount to the creation of an EU debt union.
This is a huge political step, and anathema to Berlin.
Japan said Thursday there was no bottom in sight for Asia's biggest economy as a record slump in business investment raised fears that its recession is the deepest since WW2.
"It's clear that the economy is in a severe state. We have no bottom in sight."
Chinese Premier Jiabao Thursday called on the nation to strengthen "conviction for victory" as he unveiled an unprecedented stimulus package to shore up economic growth amid global downturn.
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