Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Learning religion at school is far from an interference in one's freedom, and is rather an example of mutual respect, says Benedict XVI.
"Thanks to the teaching of the Catholic religion, schools and society are enriched with true laboratories of culture and humanity, in which, discovering the significant contribution of Christianity, the person is prepared to discover the good and to grow in responsibility."
A banner across the main square in Jesus' boyhood town condemns those who insult Islam's Prophet Muhammad -- a message by Muslim hard-liners for Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land next month.
The pontiff may have to tread carefully with his visit to Nazareth. Many Muslims are still angry over a 2006 speech in which Benedict quoted a medieval text depicting the prophet as violent.
Even some Christians are nervous that Benedict could stir up trouble for them. They worry that if he says anything contentious about Islam again, Muslims might lash out.
Chancellor Merkel's government will today lay out the bleakest set of economic data since at least WW2, raising pressure on the coalition parties to step up recession-fighting steps as elections near.
The German economy, Europe's biggest, will probably shrink by as much as 6% this year, almost 3 times the 2.25% contraction the government forecast in January.
The Christian Social Union is seriously concerned about a credit crunch for SME's, and wants banks to be able to drop the obligatory ratings process under Basle II, according to FT Deutschland.
The French are kidnapping managers and taking to the streets in protest against the global downturn.
But their neighbors in Germany seem curiously unmoved by the economic nosedive -- at least for now.
Paris is beautiful, but small – so why not extend the City of Light 100 miles northwestward to the shores of the Channel?
The startling idea is among 10 options on hand today as President Sarkozy unveils his grand plans for expanding the compact French capital into a new metropolis.
Madrid intends to push for greater economic powers to be placed in the hands of the European Union during its time at the helm of the bloc's 6-month rotating presidency next year.
After meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg, Russia's Foreign Minister said the Kremlin wasn't exactly thrilled at the bloc's Eastern European policies. But relations are still improving.
President Medvedev is to resign in autumn to be replaced by his predecessor Vladimir Putin, which will dramatically increase the risks for foreign investors, according to a recent report by Eurasia Group, an American consulting company.
The report predicts that in spring and summer, poverty and unemployment in Russia will lead to social unrest, starting in Siberia and the Urals, and then spreading all over the country.
The unrests will demand harsh political actions, and the liberal politicians in power will be replaced by authoritative ones.
Finally, in autumn Medvedev himself will resign, and Putin will take his place to the joy of the general public.
Under Putin's rule, economic policy is likely to become significantly more nationalistic and autarchic, and foreign policy will become more confrontational and unpredictable.
While the Zionists celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the so called "State" of Israel, the worldwide Jewish community, faithful to the teachings of G-d and the Torah, gather to commemorate this anniversary as a day of sorrow and tragedy.
The founding of the Zionist State is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Torah, which forbids the establishment of a Jewish State and commands Jews to remain in exile until released from that exile by G-d Himself without any human intervention.
A senior Hezbollah official has warned of a possible "Israeli attack" during Washington and Tel Aviv's joint military exercise in the region.
Hezbollah parliamentary bloc head Mohammed Raad said Tuesday that Lebanon must go on high alert during Israel's biggest-ever military maneuvers on May 31.
Former President Carter on Tuesday said that the US and Syria are close to restoring full diplomatic ties. "Syrian President Assad is very eager to restore full ties with Washington. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens this year."
Iraq's Defense Ministry spokesman says that despite the rising violence across the nation, US forces will have to leave Iraq's cities by the June 30 deadline dictated by the Status of Forces Agreement between their nations.
The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran have agreed to promote preferential trade-arrangements among their nations, and they have underscored the need to better link their countries by road and rail.
North Korea has threatened to carry out a 2nd nuclear test unless the UN Security Council apologises for criticism of its rocket launch earlier this month.
I'd like to write frankly about Ahmadinejad's Sunday interview with George Stephanopoulos. Some of the things Ahmadinejad said were, in fact, quite reasonable.
Ahmadinejad: "My second question about the Holocaust, if this is indeed a historical event, why do they want to turn it into a holy thing?
And nobody should be allowed to ask any questions about that? Nobody study it, research it, permit it to research it. Why?
If this is a historically documented event, why do Western states show so much sensitivity towards a historical event? They do not want the lid to be taken off."
(And: READ MY LIPS)
Vali Nasr, an Iranian-American academic, is serving as senior adviser to Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Here, Nasr talks to Al Jazeera about Obama's overtures to Tehran and increasing tension between some Arab states and Hezbollah ahead of crucial elections in Iran and Lebanon.
As the White House prepares the ground for direct diplomacy with Iran on a handful of issues, a group of Iran hawks gathered in Washington to discuss their views on how to handle what they describe as a "series of provocative actions" by Tehran beyond its ongoing nuclear development.
Congress is taking up a bipartisan proposal which would give the Obama administration more leverage over Iran by toughening economic sanctions on foreign oil and shipping firms that aid Tehran.
The influential Israeli lobby group in the US is to push for a newly crafted resolution designed to choke off Iranian gas imports.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is scheduled to hold its annual conference next week, said the introduction of a new bill against Iran's gasoline trade on Tuesday is no coincidence.
Government lawyers defending Obama and Congress in a lawsuit alleging that he's ineligible to occupy the Oval Office and that members of the House and Senate violated the constitutional rights of citizens by refusing to investigate want still more time to respond to the accusations.
Even though extensions had been granted to an initial round of requests to delay the proceedings, the government now says it needs even more time to prepare a response to a question that could be answered with a 5-minute telephone call from Obama to Hawaiian officials asking that his birth documentation be made public.
After only 100 days of the new administration, workers and youth are coming face to face with the fact that Obama represents no change from the anti-working class, anti-democratic and militaristic polices of his predecessor.
His presidency has already established the impossibility of effecting real change in government policy by means of elections within the framework of the existing 2-party system, or through appeals to the Democratic Party.
(And: GLOBAL CARTOONISTS ON OBAMA)
Obama can celebrate his 100th day in office today knowing that he is one step closer to securing unfettered power in Washington – and domination across ever bigger swaths of America.
The dramatic defection of veteran Senator Arlen Specter from Republican ranks has put Democrats on course to gain a congressional "super-majority" for the first time in a generation.
This makes it easier, if not certain, that Obama will be able to make rapid progress with key items on his bulging legislative agenda such as healthcare reform as well as speeding through nominations that have stalled in the Senate.
After 100 days in office, Obama should stop campaigning and start governing.
It would of course be premature to criticise him for lack of results. But there are worrying signs that the administration's method of operation will lead to failures further down the line.
(Op-ed: SETTING HIMSELF UP FOR DRAMATIC FALL)
The official version of events is not credible.
How could 1 of 2 specially-designed presidential jets be requisitioned for a flight over New York City without the knowledge of the president, the mayor or high-ranking US military officials such as the defense secretary and the joint chiefs of staff?
If the official story is indeed true, it raises the question of who is in control of the US military.
Certain details of the incident raise further questions.
No explanation has been given for the obsessive secrecy of the operation.
The claim that the flight was needed to obtain photos of Air Force One strains credulity. In minutes, a designer using software like Photoshop could produce a convincing image, superimposing a shot of Air Force One over a picture of the Statue of Liberty.
The security preparations outlined in the FAA email are provocative and sinister.
The logical conclusion is that they set out to provoke public fear in some kind of test run of the response by the state, involving numerous police agencies.
This incident is only the latest in a series of odd and disquieting events involving the US military.
While many details about the incident have yet to emerge, the official story already reeks of a cover-up.
(Conspiracy Theory: AF1 IN SHOOTDOWN SCARE)
Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman stopped a presentation to lambaste US foreign policy at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
He criticized the US when he stopped his recital to announce that he would no longer perform in the US, suggesting that its military wants to take over the world.
Can states secede? There are 3 levels on which this question can be answered.
The US economy plunged again in the 1st quarter, making this the worst recession in at least half a century.
Gross domestic product dropped at a 6.1% annual pace, weaker than forecast, after contracting at a 6.3% rate in the 4th quarter of 2008, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.
Barack Obama has squandered his presidency.
He had a fleeting moment to challenge the casino capitalism and financial recklessness of our economic and political elite.
But he lacked the foresight and the courage to challenge entrenched power.
And now we are headed down 1 of 2 frightening roads: massive deflation or hyperinflation. Neither will be pleasant.
After 8 years of watching conservatives blow trillions of dollars and comport themselves like anti-intellectual, jingoistic blockheads, I found myself ashamed to admit that the Left seemed to have all the genuine intellectuals – people who seemed to possess real curiosity, who refused to accept whatever official line the government was shelling out, and who sought genuine understanding instead of name-calling and pointless vitriol.
With the Left now in power, though, they've by and large reverted to form.
The very same people who just a year ago prided themselves on evaluating every Pentagon press release with an air of suspicion and hostility now accept without cavil whatever the Federal Reserve chairman or the Treasury secretary tell them.
They'll believe whatever economic superstition, no matter how transparently ludicrous, that happens to be in fashion.
Whatever happened to "Question Authority"?
Contrary to surface appearances such as the recent stock market rally and "glowing" 1Q profitability statements from certain Wall Street banks, multipronged risks for renewed, considerable turmoil in the US financial sector are mounting.
The recent 6-week rally on Wall Street, led mostly by banking and other financial shares, isn't based on any concrete turnaround in the deeply worrying fundamentals of the financial sector.
With municipal bond investigations spreading to Europe from the US, Italian authorities have seized about $300 million in assets of 4 global banks — JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Depfa — whose officials have been accused of fraud.
In this economy, every little bit counts. We've put together a list of the Top 10 Money Drains, those little purchases that add up to a big drain on your savings.
The markets have been remarkably relaxed about the rise in the World Health Organization pandemic alert Phase 4.
But even if losses are less (than the World Bank $3 trillion estimate), we are still talking about a further deflationary shock to a world economy already tipping into debt deflation.
It would certainly finish off half the global banking system.
It is too frightful to think about. That perhaps is why investors are doing exactly that: refusing to think about.
(Cartoon: CHANGE FROM MARKET PANIC)
American officials have said they might abandon the term swine flu, because it is confusing people into thinking they could catch the deadly virus from pork.
Israeli officials suggested renaming it Mexican flu, saying the reference to pigs was offensive to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork.
(Cartoons: SWINE FLU)
The Department of Homeland Security has sent out an alert to health care providers outlining how BATF, FBI, and US Marshals will be called upon to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a widespread swine flu outbreak in the US.
A 23-month-old child in Texas has died from the swine flu, becoming the first US death, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said today.
Australia could turn away all planes and ships, shut schools and childcare centres, and ban sports events and church services under flu lockdown plans approved by the federal Government just months before the global outbreak of deadly swine influenza.
German medical authorities have confirmed a case of swine flu in Bavaria, the health ministry of the southern state said today.
(Now: GERMANY CONFIRMS 3 CASES)
(And: OUTBREAK WIDENING IN EUROPE)
The world should prepare for a possible swine flu pandemic, especially in developing nations which could be hit particularly hard by the virus, the World Health Organisation warned.
(Chart: WHO's PANDEMIC ALERT)
With growing numbers of swine flu victims, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has described the rapidly spreading virus as a health crisis of "international concern".
Speaking in Manhattan, he said the world body was working with governments to "rapidly scale up support in controlling" an outbreak that experts are concerned could snowball into a cross-continental pandemic.
"The situation is evolving fast and constitutes a public health emergency of international concern."
Even a "mild'" swine flu epidemic could lead to the deaths of 1.4 million lives and cost the global economy more than $330 billion in lost output.
The figures, based on economic modelling of an influenza pandemic, also reveal that the most serious "ultra" scenario would cost 142.2 million lives around the world and reduce growth by $4.4 trillion.
Russian Health Ministry Officials reporting to President Medvedev are warning in their reports that the World must prepare for a "tidal wave of death" of "unprecedented dimension" due to the current swine flu pandemic sweeping across the Globe at frightening speed.
Even worse for our World, these reports continue, is that this new H1N1 variant Swine Flu already contains RNA segments of the dreaded H5N1 Bird Flu along with H3N2 swine flu variant only previously found in China, South Korea and Vietnam in a 'mixture' that UN scientists say could only have been possible due to deliberate manipulation.
Residents of a ramshackle Mexican hill village that could be ground zero in the global swine flu outbreak say they have been complaining for years about pollution from an industrial pig farm.
Doctors and public health experts are puzzling over what may be the most important question as they search for ways to stop the spread of swine flu: Why does the disease seem to be so much more severe in Mexico than in the US or anywhere else in the world?
It's possible swine flu has been circulating in Mexico for weeks, if not months, with thousands of people suffering from mild symptoms and never diagnosed with anything other than seasonal influenza.
If that's the case, swine flu may turn out to be no more dangerous than the viral infections humans regularly contract.
Alongside the fear-mongering headlines, I've also seen increasing numbers of reports questioning the true nature of this virus. And rightfully so.
Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?
(And: TIMELINE OF EVENTS)
(And: CINCO DE ZERO)
CDC was combing flu viruses in 2004.
(And: CDC's EIS)
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
A civilized society's first line of defense is not the law, police and courts but customs, traditions and moral values.
Policemen and laws can never replace customs, traditions and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior.
Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we've become.
WAR for military: YAHOO! WARriors
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
The Daily World Affairs Report / PO Box 1059 / Pearce, AZ 85625
