Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Pope Benedict XVI has visited a mosque in Jordan in an effort to heal a rift between the Vatican and the Muslim world, appealing to the "common history" of Islam and Christianity.
Pope Benedict XVI's attempts to heal a rift between the Vatican and Islam appeared to have fallen on stony ground after he failed to make key compromises while in Jordan.
The Pope appealed for an end to divisions and violence between Muslims and Christians during an unprecedented speech at a mosque on Saturday.
But he did not give the apology demanded by many Muslim leaders for remarks 3 years ago.
Thousands of Jordanians have joined Pope Benedict XVI for an open-air Mass in a football stadium, on the 3rd day of his Middle East tour.
Jordan's 200,000 Roman Catholics, and other Christians, were given a special holiday to enable them to attend.
Rather than Islam, it was the relationship between the Church and Jews that ended up dominating the Arab media agenda.
Israel is planning the visit by Pope Benedict XVI down to the last detail, even holding dress rehearsal Sunday to prepare for the pontiff's arrival at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday.
The Pope will be given unprecedented security when he arrives in Israel tomorrow because of fears that his brief enrolment in the Hitler Youth as a boy of 14 could trigger an assassination attempt by Jewish zealots.
Security chiefs are concerned that a group of fanatical Israelis could be planning an attack. "To penetrate this group of messianic Jews is more difficult than infiltrating Hamas," said a Shin Bet source.
(And: "RAW NERVES" OVER B16 VISIT)
The financial crisis provides a chance to fix Germany's state banks.
Following an aborted action by Germany's elite anti-terrorism police unit, the GSG9, to free a kidnapped freighter in Somalia, Interior Minister Schaeuble wants to broaden the mandate of the Bundeswehr.
Regional security and Germany's role in Afghanistan's reconstruction top the agenda for today's meeting between Chancellor Merkel and Afghan President Karzai, in Berlin.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, has warned at a military parade in Red Square that Moscow will teach foreign aggressors the "lessons" of WW2.
He ordered the Soviet-style parade of might to remind the world that Russia remained a powerful military force.
"The victory over fascism is a great example and a great lesson for all people and is still current today when people are again starting military adventures. We are sure that any aggression against our citizens will be given a worthy reply."
The government and settler organizations are working to surround the Old City of Jerusalem with 9 national parks, pathways and sites, drastically altering the status quo in the city.
The secret plan was assigned to the Jerusalem Development Authority.
The motivation is to create Israeli hegemony over the area around the Old City, "inspired by extreme right-wing ideology."
Half a million people are being displaced by Pakistan's military operations against the Taliban.
The United States has set October as its target for completing the first round of talks with Iran on its nuclear program, according to confidential reports sent to Jerusalem.
It was the hottest ticket in town, a black-tie dinner gathering of Washington's political and media elite.
As the star attraction of Saturday night's star-studded annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Obama enjoyed poking fun at his critics and the Republican Party.
But his own administration, in power for just over 100 days, was also a target of the president's playful digs and one-liners.
Some of Barack Obama's richest supporters fear they have elected a "class warrior" to the White House, who will turn America's freewheeling capitalism into a more regulated European system.
Wealthy Wall Street financiers and other business figures provided crucial support for Obama during the election, backing him as the right leader to rescue the collapsing US economy.
But it is now dawning on many among them that Obama was serious about his campaign trail promises to bring root and branch reform to corporate America - and that they were more than just election rhetoric.
A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: "I'm appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it's the real world. I'm surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He's a real class warrior."
Are social conservatives hurting or helping the cause of conservatism? The answer to this question has not yet been decided.
Stress tests will gauge the government's resolve to take on Wall Street.
The government is doing its best to try to "restore confidence" in the economy. Indeed, Obama's top economics advisors believe they can fool people into believing that everything is fine, and then the economy will recover.
Our delicious spring rally is nearing the limits.
The 40% rise on global bourses since March assumes that central banks have conjured away the debt overhang by slashing rates to zero and printing money.
Nothing of the sort has occurred. Two thirds of the world economy will be in deflation by July.
"Prolonged suckers' rallies tend to be especially vicious as they force everyone back into the market before cruelly dashing them on the rocks of despair yet again."
Hats off, too, to the Greek speakers at the European Central Bank who have just carried out a monetary putsch, outflanking German tank-traps on the Rhine.
What impresses me in the current financial crisis is the near-total failure of so-called progressives to appreciate the magnitude of what is going on or the level of intelligence behind it.
Progressives think the system needs to be "reformed." Maybe the banking system needs to be re-regulated or even nationalized. Maybe it should be possible for families facing loss of their homes to get a lower monthly payment from a bankruptcy court. Maybe the government instead of the private sector should administer student loans.
What we fail to acknowledge is that the system itself is totalitarian. This means that it is designed to exert total control over the lives of individuals.
We are accustomed to use this label when thinking of anachronisms of history like communism or fascism. We do not understand that globalist finance capitalism and the government which protects, enables, or even regulates it are also totalitarian.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the US has soared to 2,254, with 104 people in hospital, as the outbreak spreads around the world.
There are another 700 presumed cases in the US which has overtaken Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, for confirmed infections after a "backlog" of laboratory tests was released.
Donald Rumsfeld's Tamiflu pushers (just as they were in 2006) are set to be the big winners in the GSFS (great swine flu scare of 2009) lottery.
Shares of Swiss drug-maker Roche Holding had fallen sharply after their latest cancer drug failure — but the GSFS came just in time to give their falling stocks a boost — just as the great bird flu scare of 2006 did.
Now the World Health Organization — courtesy of ever-suffering US taxpayers — wants to "save" billions of people by spending billions of dollars for: 1.) Roche's flu drug Tamiflu; and 2.) a rush to concoct a vaccine for a virus they claim is a mystery to science.
The leading contender to get that juicy vaccine contract is Baxter — the same company that almost unleashed a deadly pandemic on the world less than 6 months before the GSFS.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
The myth that women are the less aggressive sex is disproved every day.
Women are not chaste vessels of virtue, in matters of money or anything else. You only need to be one to know that.
We may lack the testosterone surges that make little boys delight in smashing each other with sticks, but we are born – and remain – every bit as competitive, cruel and egotistical as them.
(Cartoons: MOTHER'S DAY)
We've used regular sugar cubes to show how the sugars in your favorite foods literally stack up, gram for gram.
Compare foods, find out where sugar is hiding, and see how much of the sweet stuff you're really eating.
* Exo 12:6 - 13:16
* Lev 23:5-8
* Num 9:2-5 / 28:16-18 / 33:3
* Deut 16:1-8
* Jos 5:10,11
* 2Chr 35:1-8
* Ezra 6:19-22
* John 18:28 - 19:42
* Mark 15:1-47
* Luke 22:66 - 23:56
* Mat 27:1-66
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