Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Under sunny skies and warm weather that hinted of summer, hundreds of thousands of Germans turned out in the center of Berlin Saturday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the constitution with food, music and beer.
(And: A GERMAN ANNIVERSARY)
Ireland prepares for a European election and, more crucially, another referendum.
The FSB is reporting to Prime Minister Putin that Israel's right-wing foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman is preparing to put before Israeli lawmakers a shocking new law that would totally outlaw the religions of Christianity and Islam as "threats to the State of Israel" and forbidding anyone from practicing these faiths in any territory under Israeli occupation or rule.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today rebuffed US calls to impose a freeze on all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, setting the stage for friction with Barack Obama.
Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon spoke to Channel 2 on Saturday about the meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama, held earlier this week, saying that Israel's government will not allow the US to dictate its policy, and that "settlement construction will not be halted."
Thousands of Israelis marched onto the streets of Jerusalem to stage a demonstration against US Administration.
Since inauguration early this year, Barack Obama has expressed his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the division of Jerusalem, which has aroused strong protests from the Israeli government and Israelis.
The Israeli protesters, shouted slogans "Keep Jerusalem undivided","Obama, Two State Solution will destroy Jewish country", passing by the US Consulate.
The presidents of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan have held a rare summit today to discuss security, drug trafficking and other issues.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' latest homemade attack helicopter, the Shahed (Witness) 285, has joined Iran's aerial fleet.
The IRGC says the state-of-the-art helicopter is capable of taking part in seaborne and airborne combat operations.
Just over half of Israelis back an immediate attack on the nuclear facilities of arch-foe Iran, but the rest want to wait and see the results of US diplomacy, according to a poll released today.
As Israel steps up a campaign to muster support for waging war on Iran, the UN nuclear watchdog chief says the knowledge of Iranian nuclear scientists cannot be bombed.
Tony Blair viewed his decision to go to war in Iraq and Kosovo as part of a "Christian battle", according to one of his closest political allies.
The former Prime Minister's faith is claimed to have influenced all his key policy decisions and to have given him an unshakeable conviction that he was right.
Filling in as guest host for radio talk-show host Bill Bennett this week, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Barack Obama was simply never vetted by the press because it fell in love with him.
"The problem that we have with this president is that we don't know him. He was not vetted, folks. … He was not vetted, because the press fell in love with the black man running for the office.
"'Oh gee, wouldn't it be neat to do that? Gee, wouldn't it make all of our liberal guilt just go away? We can continue to ride around in our limousines and feel so lucky to live in an America with a black president.'
"Okay that's wonderful, great scenario, nice backdrop. But what does he stand for? What does he believe? … So we don't know. We just don't know."
The former vice president's voice appears to carry even more weight than it did in the waning days of the Bush administration.
According to Cheney, Obama must continue to vigorously implement the Bush-Cheney-Bolton so-far incredibly successful comprehensive strategy.
Otherwise, terrorists may once again attempt to bring down those WTC Twin Towers.
Senior Republicans have turned on Dick Cheney after he launched a high-profile attack on Obama over national security.
In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, Obama boldly told Americans: "We are out of money."
"Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades."
(Cartoons: SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE)
World economic recovery will be slow and rising unemployment could bring the threat of social crisis and protectionism, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview with Spanish Sunday newspaper El Pais.
"What began as a great financial crisis and became a great economic crisis is now becoming a great crisis of unemployment, and if we don't take measures there is a risk of a great human and social crisis, with major political implications. That's a good breeding ground for populist, protectionist policies."
Spring has arrived, stockmarkets are cheery and even forecasters are feeling a bit sunnier about the economic outlook.
In the euro area, things could scarcely get worse, after an exceptionally severe winter.
The American consumer is faltering, British shoppers are heavily in debt and anxious Germans are unlikely to take up the slack.
So recovery from the collapse is likely to turn into a long hard slog.
Credit Default Swaps are the root-cause of systemic risk which connects hundreds of financial institutions together in a lethal daisy-chain that threatens to crash the entire system if one of the main players goes under.
China has doubled its bullion reserves and left us in no doubt that it will spend more of its $40bn monthly surplus on hard assets rather than the toxic paper of Western democracies.
Personally, I remain a gold bug out of fear that the most corrosive phase of this crisis lies ahead.
Saudi Arabia's oil minister said the price of oil will climb to $75 a barrel when demand picks up.
"We'll get there eventually. The trick is keeping it between $70 and $80. It will be achieved as demand rises and the fundamentals are better than they are now."
(And: BUST 'N BOOM)
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German food regulators discovered traces of cocaine in cans of Red Bull Cola and the energy drink has been ordered off the shelves in some states.
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