Animal-human embryo research is approved
Experiments to create Britain’s first embryos that combine human and animal material will begin within months after a government watchdog gave its approval yesterday to two research teams to carry out the controversial work… The creation of human-animal embryos will be explicitly permitted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill currently passing through Parliament… An amendment that would have blocked such research was defeated in the House of Lords on Monday by a majority of 172…

Times (London), Jan. 18, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/ST/MO)

First cloned human embryo created from skin cell
A cloned human embryo has been produced for the first time from a skin cell, raising the prospect that such embryos could be made to provide stem cells tailored to any patient. Only one cloned human embryo has been made before, reported by a team at Newcastle University, UK, in 2005. But it was made by cloning human embryonic stem cells that are not routinely available from patients, and so would not be practical. The embryo newly created from a skin cell potentially gets round this problem. The ultimate aim is to make temporary embryos from which human embryonic stem cells…could be extracted…

New Scientist, Jan. 17, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ST/MO)

Former military chiefs call for joint EU-NATO 'directorate'
Five former Western military leaders have called for the formation of a joint EU-NATO 'directorate' in order to co-ordinate the two bodies' response to any threats to global security… Within the EU, 21 of 27 member states are also members of NATO, and NATO itself has 26 members. However, despite the overlap, co-ordination between EU and NATO military activities has been problematic at times, with concerns over military capabilities and duplication of activities…

EUobserver, Jan. 17, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR/US/WT)

7-year plan aligns U.S. with Europe's economy
Six U.S. senators and 49 House members are advisers for a group working toward a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015…The plan – currently being implemented by the Bush administration with the formation of the Transatlantic Economic Council in April 2007 – appears to be following a plan written in 1939 by a world-government advocate who sought to create a Transatlantic Union as an international governing body. An economist from the World Bank has argued in print that the formation of the Transatlantic Common Market is designed to follow the blueprint of Jean Monnet, a key intellectual architect of the European Union, recognizing that economic integration must inevitably lead to political integration. As WND previously reported, a key step in advancing this goal was the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council by the U.S. and the EU through an agreement signed by President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel – the current president of the European Council – and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at a White House summit meeting last April…

WorldNetDaily, Jan. 16, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/EU)

Bubonic, pneumonic plaque re-emerging worldwide
The disease that devastated medieval Europe is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers cautioned Tuesday…

Xinhuanet, Jan. 16, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (GI/ND)

McKinsey warns US may lose financial leadership
The US looks poised to lose its mantle as the world's dominant financial market because of a rapid rise in the depth and maturity of markets in Europe, a study suggests. The change may have occurred already, not least because US markets are beset by credit woes, according to research by McKinsey Global Institute, a think-tank affiliated to the consultancy. "We think the differential growth rates are so significant that it is quite likely Europe has overtaken the US," said Diana Farrell, author of the report…

Financial Times, Jan. 15, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/EU)

British prime minister says European Union is crucial for U.K. prosperity
Britain must keep a leading role in the Europe Union - and drive forward economic reforms in the bloc - to ride out global turbulence in the financial markets, the prime minister said Monday. Gordon Brown stressed the importance of Europe to the British economy, responding to political opponents who accuse him of surrendering powers to Brussels by signing a treaty last month that simplified how the 27-country EU is run…

Canadian Press, Jan. 14, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/EU)

Kenya's election dispute ignites decades-old resentments and fears
More than 600 people were killed as neighbor attacked neighbor with machetes, burned homes, and even a church… 255,000 people [were] forced from their homes…

Associated Press, Jan. 14, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AF/WT)

Plot to kill queen foiled
British monarch Queen Elizabeth was targeted by al-Qaida-linked suicide terrorists posing as TV crews at November's Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Uganda, but the plot was discovered by authorities and "neutralized" before it could be carried out, a Ugandan official has confirmed…

WorldNetDaily, Jan. 13, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/AF/WT)

Terror Plot to Blow Up Eiffel Tower Uncovered
A plot by Islamic terrorists to blow up the Eiffel Tower has been uncovered. A scrambled short-wave radio conversation exposing the planned attack on the world's most visited monument was picked up by Portuguese air traffic controllers and passed on to French spy chiefs…

This Is London, Jan. 13, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/WT)

Islamic Jesus Hits Iranian Movie Screens
A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the 'common ground' between Muslims and Christians…[with] two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified…

AFP, Jan. 13, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/RE)

Opposition sweep to victory in Taiwan
Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party won a landslide victory in legislative elections Saturday, giving a big boost to its policy of closer engagement with China two months before a presidential poll it now seems poised to win… The Nationalists favor more active engagement with China and do not rule out eventual unification…

CNN, Jan. 12, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AP)

Lahore Suicide Blast Marks Two Weeks Since Bhutto Killing
Two weeks after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, things in Pakistan lurch from bad to worse. On Thursday a bomb killed 20 police officers in Lahore, meanwhile opposition parties claim President Musharraf is attempting to rig forthcoming elections…

Spiegel, Jan. 10, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AP/WT)

Mexican soldiers found invading United States
A federal document obtained and released by Judicial Watch reveals that there were dozens of armed incursions by Mexican soldiers and police into the United States during Fiscal Year 2007. The report was obtained by the Washington-based organization that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and it documents 29 confirmed incidents along the U.S.-Mexican border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement personnel during that time…

WorldNetDaily, Jan. 10, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/LA)

Bush opens Mideast tour with new warning to Iran
US President George W. Bush issued a new warning to regional archfoe Iran on Wednesday as he began a Middle East tour under the shadow of a weekend naval face-off between the two countries. Bush threatened Iran with "serious consequences" if it attacked US warships, saying "all options" were on the table to protect US assets after Sunday's standoff in the strategic Strait of Hormuz…

AFP, Jan. 9, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/WT)

Forget oil, the new global crisis is food
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said…

Financial Post, Jan. 7, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (GI/ND)

Fury over new gay hate laws which 'threaten free speech'
A coalition of [British] MPs is hoping to halt a gay hate law which will stop Christians pronouncing their beliefs about marriage and family life. The Tory, Labour and Lib-Dem MPs are demanding an amendment be introduced to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill to make sure religious leaders are not prosecuted for criticising homosexual lifestyles…

Daily Mail, Jan. 7, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/MO)

Power struggles lie ahead for new EU institutions
Some of the reforms [of the new EU treaty], such as the simpler, more democratic voting system and a smaller European Commisison, do not even take effect until 2017 and 2014 respectively. The new institutional balance could prove uneasy. By establishing a long-term president of the European Council and a stronger foreign policy chief, the EU has created two top officials who will almost inevitably vie for power with the president of the European Commission and with the leaders of the big member states, insiders say. The carve-up of the new positions between big and small states, northern and southern Europe, and left and right-wing parties promises some epic struggles in the next two years…The treaty did not resolve the question of who speaks for the world's biggest trading bloc at the top tables of the world economy, in the Group of Seven industrialised powers, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. For the moment, four EU states -- Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- plus the EU presidency, the European Commission, the chairman of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers and the European Central Bank, all sit at the G7 table, to the exasperation of their U.S., Japanese and Canadian interlocutors…Britain and France will keep their coveted veto-bearing permanent seats in the U.N. Security Council, but the EU foreign policy chief will have a right of audience there to represent the EU's common foreign and security policy. Eurosceptics in Britain and the most enthusiastic federalists in Brussels say that is the first step towards an eventual single EU seat on the world's law-making top body…Meanwhile Spain, Italy and Poland continue to bridle at the dominance of Britain, France and Germany, for example in nuclear negotiations with Iran…

Reuters, Jan. 4, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR/GI)

EU must choose between Serbia and Kosovo, Belgrade says
Serbia is stepping up its resistance towards the idea of Kosovo becoming independent, with the country's prime minister Vojislav Kostunica sending a clear warning to the European Union - either it backs Belgrade or Pristina. "We have come to the point where the EU has to choose whether it wants for its partner a whole, internationally recognised Serbia or wants to create a quasi-state on Serbian territory", Mr Kostunica said in a written statement… He also rejected the idea of sending an EU mission, consisting of 1,800 policemen, prosecutors and judges, to Serbia's breakaway province - something that was agreed by all 27 European leaders in December…

EUobserver, Jan. 4, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

Report Reveals Rampant Smuggling of Radioactive Materials
In a troubling disclosure, the Russian Federal Customs Service has revealed that authorities thwarted more than 850 attempts to smuggle highly radioactive materials in and out of Russia in 2007. Eighty-five percent of these smuggling attempts were going into the country, and 15 percent were going out. The figures are likely to fuel fears about how many illegal exports were not detected, and what the potential dangers of such radioactive materials can be…

ABC News, Jan. 4, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/WT)

The unspeakable practice of female circumcision that's destroying young women's lives in Britain
Even those aware that it occurs in large swathes of Africa and Asia will be shocked to learn that it is prevalent in Britain…By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated…

Daily Mail, Jan. 3, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/MO)

Bhutto Murder Theories Used as Political Tool
Al-Qaida, the secret service or a contract killer sent by President Musharraf? A gun shot, bomb shrapnel or a fatal blow to the head? Wild theories about the death of Benazir Bhutto are making the rounds in Pakistan -- and are becoming levers of political power…

Spiegel, Jan. 2, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AP/WT)

Olmert hints Jerusalem division is inevitable
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled on Tuesday Israel might have no choice but to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians in a peace deal, citing international pressure for compromise over the holy city…

Reuters, Jan. 1, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/RE/WT)

Cyprus, Malta Adopt Euro, Spurring Price Anxiety
Cyprus and Malta became the latest economies to embrace the euro, increasing membership of the common currency to 15 and giving the two island nations a say in shaping European Central Bank policy…

Bloomberg, Jan. 1, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

Britain has become a 'Catholic country'
Roman Catholics have overtaken Anglicans as the country's dominant religious group. More people attend Mass every Sunday than worship with the Church of England… The rise of Catholicism has been bolstered by an influx of immigrants from eastern Europe and Africa, who have packed the pews of Catholic parishes that had previously been dwindling…

Telegraph, Dec. 26, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/RE)

Iran and Russia meet to discuss defense cooperation
Iran and Russia discussed defense cooperation, the official IRNA reported Monday, as ties between the two countries have been increasingly flourishing…

Associated Press, Dec. 24, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/ME/WT)

Questions and Answers About Americans’ Religion
About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion. That includes 51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were "other Christian," 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another Christian faith, including 2% Mormon…Sixty-two percent of Americans in Gallup's latest poll, conducted in December, say they are members of a "church or synagogue"… About 44% of Americans report what can be called frequent church attendance -- almost every week or every week…

Gallup, Dec. 24, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/RE)

Momentous Day: Border Controls Vanish in Eastern Europe
Europe just got bigger. At one minute after midnight local time on early Friday morning, border controls vanished for nine more European Union members, many of them former members of the Soviet Bloc. Fireworks, cheers, music and speeches throughout the morning welcomed the expansion, which means that travelers can move from the far corners of Estonia all the way to the Atlantic coast in Portugal without once encountering a border guard… Border checks in airports will remain in place until March, however… There are now 24 countries -- including two non-EU states, Norway and Iceland -- populated by 400 million people in the border-free travel zone. Switzerland is set to join in 2008, with Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria likewise in line. Not everyone is unreservedly ecstatic about the border openings…Many are concerned that increased travel freedom will come at the price of decreased security…

Spiegel, Dec. 21, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

China and India Start First-Ever Joint Military Exercise
China and India began a small joint military exercise Wednesday, the first time two countries have cooperated militarily at that high a level. The past rivals, who fought a brief war over a border dispute in 1962, have grown ever closer in recent years, mostly due to burgeoning trade ties…

Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 20, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AP/WT)

U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007
Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore…

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Dec. 20, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (GI/ST)

Hungary First to Ratify EU Treaty
Hungary has become the first of the European Union's 27 members to endorse the Lisbon Treaty. But, the bloc's biggest reforms planned in years won't take effect unless the other 26 states also agree to it…

Deutsch Welle, Dec. 18, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

Verhofstadt to lead interim government in Belgium
Without a new government since the elections of 10 June, King Albert of Belgium charged, on 17 December 2008, the country's current Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt with the formation of an interim government until 23 March 2008. A definitive government, lead by the winner of the elections, Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme, is expected to take over after that. So far, Leterme has failed twice to form a government coalition…

EurActiv, Dec. 18, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns
In an "unforeseen and unprecedented" shift, the world food supply is dwindling rapidly and food prices are soaring to historic levels, the top food and agriculture official of the United Nations warned Monday…

International Herald Tribune, Dec. 17, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (GI/ND)

Experts warn major Israel quakes fast approaching
Three minor quakes over the past month have served as a reminder that Israel and the West Bank sit atop one of the most sensitive fault lines in the world, where earthquakes have a history of causing havoc. "We can say with certainty that an earthquake of a magnitude of six on the Richter scale could take place in the coming years…It can happen tomorrow or in years to come…Statistically, there is a major quake every 80 years." Under that assessment, Israel and the Palestinian territories should brace for a major earthquake soon, as the last one happened 80 years ago, on July 11, 1927, in British mandate Palestine when 300 people were killed in Jerusalem and Jericho. A similar quake measuring seven on the Richter scale and with an epicentre in the Hula Valley, today in northern Israel up from the Sea of Galilee, devastated the town of Safed and killed some 4,000 people in 1837…The Lod institute estimates that if a magnitude seven earthquake strikes the northern Jordan Valley or the Dead Sea, between 8,200 and 9,500 people could be killed, more than 20,000 injured and more than 20,000 left homeless…

AFP, Dec. 17, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/ND)

Americans Express Their Views of the Virgin Birth of Christ [and Other Biblical Stories]
Most American adults believe that the stories they read in the Bible can be taken as literal truth, not merely as stories told to communicate life principles. A new nationwide survey by The Barna Group explored a half dozen stories drawn from the Bible…A majority of adults indicated that they accepted five of the six stories - including the virgin birth of Jesus Christ [as well as Jesus turning water into wine, Jesus feeding the multitudes, Noah’s Flood, and Eve and the serpent] - as being literally true, while half accepted the sixth story [of Samson losing his strength when Delilah cut his hair] as an accurate depiction of an historical event…

Barna Group, Dec. 17, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/RE)

Mashaal: We're able to launch third and fourth intifada
Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters mark organization's 20th anniversary; 'violence is our real choice, our trump card, which causes the enemy to succumb to us,' exiled leader says…

Ynet News, Dec. 15, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/WT)

EU leaders sign key reform treaty
European leaders signed a new treaty in Lisbon, Portugal on Thursday to reshape the European Union and streamline decision-making, despite criticism that the treaty strips member nations of too much power. Leaders of the EU's 27 member nations approved the treaty in October. It is the would-be successor to the proposed EU constitution that was scrapped in 2005 after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it. While the national parliaments in each member nation must still ratify the treaty's final text, it will now go to voters in only one nation -- Ireland, where the country's constitution requires a public referendum. The lack of referenda in other member nations has caused controversy, mostly in Euro-skeptic countries like Britain, where vocal critics have been demanding a public vote. The headline in Thursday's edition of The Sun tabloid in Britain read, "Never have so few decided so much for so many"…

CNN, Dec. 13, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR)

EU Leaders Sign Treaty, Plan to Avoid Popular Votes
European Union leaders signed a new governing treaty, with most countries planning parliamentary ratification to escape the popular votes that doomed the EU constitution. The leaders set a January 2009 deadline for all 27 countries to ratify the Reform Treaty…Only Ireland is legally bound to putting the treaty to a referendum… Ireland…voted down the EU's current rulebook in 2001 only to back it a year later. Support for the Reform Treaty was running at 25 percent in late October, with 13 percent against and 62 percent undecided…

Bloomberg, Dec. 13, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR)

Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans
British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran…

Telegraph, Dec. 12, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/WT)

Merkel Slams Sarkozy's 'Club Med' Plans
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come out strongly against French President Nicolas Sarkozy's vision of a Mediterranean Union. Merkel believes the proposed bloc poses a risk to the EU's core and could release "explosive forces"…

Spiegel, Dec. 6, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/ME)

Temple Institute Announces: High Priest's Crown is Ready!
The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announces the completion of the Tzitz, the High Priest's headplate - now ready for use in the Holy Temple…

Israel National News, Dec. 2, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/RE)

Putin suspends arms control treaty in worsening of relations with US
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, yesterday personally signed a law suspending Russia's participation in a key post-cold war arms treaty, in a move that will effectively kill off one of the landmark defence agreements between Moscow and the west…

Financial Times, Dec. 1, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/WT)

Holocaust scholar: 'Jew' has become curse word among German youth
[According to a new study in Germany] this generation's students are less sensitive to the horrors of the Holocaust than any before. The research also examines the role that immigrants have played in the changing attitudes towards the Shoah [Holocaust]. Experts are quoted in the study as saying that there is a marked rise in the number of Muslims in Germany, many of whom see the teaching of the Holocaust as a veiled endorsement of the policies of the state of Israel. "Out of fear of the students' reactions, many of the teachers avoid teaching this chapter of history in order to not be viewed by some students as supporters of Israel." "The word 'Jew' has turned into one of the most common curse words among students in both east and west Germany," said Gottfried Cosler, a Frankfurt-based Holocaust scholar…

Haaretz, Dec. 1, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/RE/MO)

Bangladesh Relief
The cyclone [that] made landfall Nov. 15…[left] vast devastation and more than 3,200 dead and more than 1,000 others missing…

American Forces Press Service, Nov. 28, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AP/ND)

Giuliani: Jonah of Bible not really swallowed [and other candidate responses]
GOP candidates at debate asked if they believe all of Good Book… "The reality is, I believe it, but I don't believe it necessarily literally true in every single respect," said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is Catholic. "I think there are parts of the Bible that are interpretive; I think there are parts of the Bible that are allegorical; I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be interpreted in a modern context." "I don't believe every single thing in the literal sense of Jonah being in the belly of the whale," he added. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, drew applause when he said "the Bible is the Word of God, absolutely." "Does that mean you believe every word?" asked moderator Anderson Cooper. "Yeah, I believe it's the Word of God," Romney said. "I might interpret the Word differently than you interpret the Word, but I read the Bible and I believe the Bible is the Word of God. I don't disagree with the Bible. I try and live by it." The only other candidate presented with the question was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister. "It's the Word of revelation to us from God Himself," Huckabee said. "The fact is when people ask if you believe all of it, you either believe it or you don't believe it." "As the only person here probably on this stage with a theology degree, there are parts of it I don't fully comprehend and understand, but I'm not supposed to. Because the Bible is the revelation of an infinite God, and no finite person is ever gonna fully understand it. If they do, their God is too small"…

WorldNetDaily, Nov. 28, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/RE)

Natural Disasters Four Times More Common
More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study that largely blamed global warming… The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report… The number of people affected by extreme natural disasters, meanwhile, has surged by almost 70 percent, from 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994, to 254 million people a year between 1995 to 2004, Oxfam said. Floods and wind-storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold. But the number of geothermal events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, has barely changed…

AFP, Nov. 26, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (GI/ND)

Senior Vatican diplomat says ties with Israel worsening
A senior Vatican diplomat who served as papal envoy to Israel has described Vatican-Israeli relations as worsening, blaming the Jewish state for failing to keep promises related to church land, taxes and travel restrictions on Arab clergy…

Associated Press, Nov. 16, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/ME/RE)

EU 'should expand beyond Europe'
[British] Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries. He said enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability…

BBC News, Nov. 15, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (BR/EU/ME)

French EU presidency to push for defence integration
France will…push for a Europe of defence, proposing Brussels-based EU planning staff, exchanges between professional soldiers and a harmonization of military education – ideas which are likely to raise concern in the UK...

EUobserver, Nov. 13, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR/WT)

Putin, Singh talk up Russia-India ties
Arms and energy were on the agenda Monday as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to buttress ties between the veteran allies. The talks were part of a two-day visit by Singh to buttress the relationship between the two powers, which hope to more than double trade volumes. "Our relations have a long history and today are developing in the best way possible," Putin was quoted as saying at the opening of the meeting by Russian news agencies. "For us, friendship with Russia has passed the test of time," Singh replied. India was a key ally of the former Soviet Union in the Cold War era…In a statement released ahead of the talks, the Russian presidential administration said the two sides would work on intensifying the country's "strategic partnership" on international relations, with a particular focus on the Middle East…

AFP, Nov. 12, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/AP/ME)

Poll: Many Support School Distribution of Birth Control
Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll…

Fox News, Nov. 1, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/MO)

"EU Must Become a Superpower" - says world's largest public opinion survey
Survey of public opinion in 52 countries shows the EU is the only great power in the world whose leadership is widely supported. A global public opinion survey by Gallup International - conducted in collaboration with the European Council on Foreign Relation (ECFR) - shows that there is growing public support for a more multi-polar world, and one in every three citizens around the world (35%) would like to see the European Union's influence to grow. In an ECFR policy brief…authors…point out that "the EU is unique among the four big powers (the other three being the US, China and Russia) in that no-one wants to balance its rise"…

European Council on Foreign Relations, Oct. 23, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/GI)

Death of the Bush Doctrine
The Bush Doctrine — born on Sept. 20, 2001, when President Bush bluntly warned the sponsors of violent jihad: "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists" — is dead. Its demise was announced by Condoleezza Rice last Friday…She was explaining why the administration had abandoned the most fundamental condition of its support for Palestinian statehood - namely, an end to Palestinian terror. Rice's explanation…was as striking for its candor as for its moral blindness: "…'The reason that we haven't really been able to move forward on the peace process for a number of years is that we were stuck in the sequentiality of the road map. So you had to do the first phase of the road map [i.e., Palestinians stop terrorism] before you moved on to the third phase of the road map, which was the actual negotiations of final status,' Rice said. . . . What the US-hosted November peace summit in Annapolis did was 'break that tight sequentiality. . . You don't want people to get hung up on settlement activity or the fact that the Palestinians haven't fully been able to deal with the terrorist infrastructure. . .'" Thus the president who once insisted that a "Palestinian state will never be created by terror" now insists that a Palestinian state be created regardless of terror. Once the Bush administration championed a "road map" whose first and foremost requirement was that the Palestinians "declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism" and shut down "all official . . . incitement against Israel." Now the administration says that Palestinian terrorism and incitement are nothing "to get hung up on." Whatever happened to the moral clarity that informed the president's worldview in the wake of 9/11? Whatever happened to the conviction that was at the core of the Bush Doctrine: that terrorists must be anathematized and defeated, and the fever-swamps that breed them drained and detoxified?... In its hunger for Arab support against Iran — and perhaps in a quest for a historic "legacy" — the administration has dropped "with us or with the terrorists." It is hellbent instead on bestowing statehood upon a regime that stands unequivocally with the terrorists. "Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice says…

Jeff Jacoby, Jewish World Review
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/WT)

Here, there, everywhere Blair: Tony for Europe's president?
Here comes Blair now, making a confident pitch to become the first-ever president of the European Union. It's a new, potentially high-profile, influential position - and he wants it. In fact, the recent convert to Roman Catholicism seems to covet it…In France this past weekend, Blair addressed a gathering of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative Union for a Popular Movement party and strongly hinted that he is interested in the E.U. president's post. Sarkozy reportedly supports his bid. Positioning himself as a politician for all people, Blair said: "When it comes to Europe, it is not about left or right, but the future and the past, and even strength or weakness....As we advance in the 21st century - like China and India, both of which have larger populations than America and a united Europe, twice over - our mission in the world does not include looking backward....[W]e are so much more powerful, more effective...if we are part of a larger Europe, together, united and strong"…

SF Gate, World Views, Jan. 15, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR)

National ID: Another step to totalitarianism
According to a report from the London-based Privacy International, "Privacy is being extinguished in country after country." The report also noted that privacy was improving in the former communist states of Eastern Europe, but it is worsening across Western Europe and the United States…Step by step, using a wide variety of good excuses, Americans are allowing themselves to be fingerprinted, their eyes scanned, computer chips inserted under their skin, providing DNA, and more. The most important question one must ask before relying completely on available technology is "who's in control of it?" We can create technology to do literally anything – but should we? The question is important because some of the same technology that will make our lives better can, in the wrong hands, make our lives a living hell. As more and more legislation is offered as solutions to illegal immigration, we must also ask, "Where are the guarantees to legal Americans that there is identity protection?"… Under the Real ID system, the burden is put squarely on legal, law-abiding citizens to punish those who have broken our laws. Is that justice? Is that truly how we want our nation to operate? It's certainly not freedom…But, say those who advocate such policy, we have no alternative. How else can we stop the invasion of illegals? How can we protect ourselves from terrorism? Here are some actions that require no databanks and maintain freedom…

Tom DeWeese, WorldNetDaily, Jan. 15, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/MO)

Bush Promotes a Palestinian "Right of Return"
The "right of return" to Israel [by Palestinian refugees] is transparently a code phrase to overwhelm Israel demographically, thereby undoing Zionism and the Jewish state…White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino adopted the term, though without much notice. Out of seemingly nowhere, she informed journalists at a press briefing on November 28, 2007 that "The right of return issue is a part of the road map and it's going to be one of the issues that the Israelis and the Palestinians have to talk about during … negotiations." Indeed, on schedule, "right of return" emerged as a motif before and during George W. Bush's recent trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, when he mentioned it three times publicly…This is only one of several problematic statements from the Bush administration, such as the president's morally equivalent reference to "terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis" or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's calling the Arab-Israeli conflict the central issue of the Middle East and seeing Palestinians as analogous to Southern blacks…Bush prefaced his January 10 comment by asserting, "I'm the only president that's really articulated a two-state solution so far," and he is right. Put differently, he is the only U.S. president to promote a "Palestine" and now to call for a Palestinian "right of return"…Although Bush is "seen by many Israelis as the best friend the Jewish state has had in the White House," I have long doubted that characterization, and now more so than ever…

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Jan. 14, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/WT)

President Bush leaves lasting legacy for Arab League
President George Bush delivered a severe rebuff to the Arab League in remarks made by him at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 10 January 2008… The message -- and warning -- conveyed to the Arab League by President Bush is strikingly clear: 1. Wake up to reality and abandon the idea of a unitary state -- unequivocally and without reservation -- and get the PLO to explicitly excise this objective from its Charter. 2. End the conflict by agreeing to the creation of an Arab state between Israel and Jordan in that part of the West Bank which leaves Israel with secure, recognised and defensible borders. 3. Accept resettlement of the refugees in this new State or alternatively receive compensation from an internationally sponsored and supported fund if they are not willing to emigrate there. 4. If you fail to endorse this solution over the next twelve months then you can say goodbye to a new 23rd member State called Palestine joining the Arab League. My successor will certainly not want to be publicly humiliated by the Arab League as has happened to me over the last 5 years. 5. Expect that it will then become your obligation to solve the refugee issue and the ongoing conflict without any further diplomatic or financial support from the United States. 6. Don't be surprised if the United States then calls on you to resolve the refugee issue by demanding that you grant citizenship and equal rights to all refugees living within the borders of your member States and that you pay for their rehabilitation out of your own oil-bloated revenues. This is the legacy President Bush has bequeathed to the Arab League for 2008. And beyond...

David Singer, Israel Insider, Jan. 14, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/WT)

A Union of the West
Former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur this week proposed in a long essay "a true union of the West" between Europe and North America, which received a warm response from France's new President Nicolas Sarkozy. His call reflects what has become the conventional wisdom, to interpret the widespread predictions of future economic growth in China and India as meaning that Asia will be the new center of gravity for the world economy, and for the foreign and economic policies of the United States. Certainly the emerging markets like China and India (but also including Russia and Brazil and Poland and Turkey) accounted for half of global growth last year, and on current form will soon be producing more than half of all the wealth generated on the planet. The conventional wisdom, however, is wrong. By far the most important economic relationship for the United States is the balanced and mutually beneficial trade and investment relationship with Europe…The plain fact is that Europe is a vastly more important market for U.S. companies and for their affiliates operating in Europe than China or India…These two economies are bound at the hip, mutually dependent and mutually profitable. Together, they dominate the global economy. Each has a total gross domestic product of about $14 trillion (depending on the ups and downs of the exchange rate) in a global economy of around $50 trillion…What all this means is that forecasts of the inevitable dominance of the global economy by China or India should be treated with some care…

Martin Walker, UPI, Jan. 9, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/EU/BR)

A last stand for democracy in Strasbourg
Before Christmas, almost entirely unreported here in Britain, the proceedings of the European Parliament were brought to a halt by an unprecedented uproar. Just after the EU's leaders had flown back from signing their new treaty in Lisbon, the Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates, as the EU's acting "president", was in Strasbourg for a ceremony to celebrate the signing of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, part of the Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. During his speech, some 50 MEPs of both Left and Right and from several countries…unfurled banners emblazoned with the word "Referendum". The protest was intended to bear dignified, silent witness on behalf of all those countries, including Britain, that are now to be denied referendums on the treaty. But when ushers were ordered to remove the placards and other MEPs began shouting abuse, some of the demonstrators began shouting back. The scene became so unedifying that the television coverage of the proceedings was cut off. Several group leaders made pompous speeches deploring the "football hooligan" behaviour of those MEPs who, as one put it, "had shown contempt for the dignity of Parliament". The ceremony concluded with the majority of MEPs standing reverentially to attention for the "European anthem" - which is one of the very few items dropped from the rejected Constitution to justify the pretence that the virtually identical new treaty is somehow a completely different document. Nothing like this had ever happened in the Parliament, but never before has the EU's ruling elite shown such contempt for those they govern - all those voters who were promised referendums and have been denied them. Beginning with the decision of the European Council last June that there could be no further debate on the wording of the treaty which it alone had decided - itself an unprecedented flouting of the rules - it has been an astonishing coup d'etat…The most humiliating charade of all is unfolding here in Britain, where Gordon Brown has promised no less than three months of parliamentary debate on the treaty he signed so shamefacedly in Lisbon. This will be an entirely futile exercise, since MPs will not even officially be given a comprehensible copy of the treaty they are discussing. It has deliberately been made as hard to follow as possible, by redrafting the constitution into a bewildering mass of amendments to previous treaties, which are virtually meaningless out of context. And nothing our MPs say can change a word of the treaty, since it is already signed and set in stone. In this pitiful fashion what is known as the Mother of Parliaments will sign its own death warrant…

Christopher Booker, The Telegraph, Jan. 7, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR)

The New EU: Definitely a Superstate
Without your say-so or mine, the EU is to be given all the institutions which, in customary international law, are recognized as those which identify a state as independent and sovereign. If the EU opts to exercise power in the manner of a sovereign independent state, that presages the subsuming into what is now to be called, simply, “The Union” the twenty-seven member states and their powers. To those of you who doubt so bold a claim, I recommend that you look no further than the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, a treaty signed at Montevideo, Uruguay on December 26, 1933, at the Seventh International Conference of American States…The criteria it laid down for the identification of what is and what is not a sovereign independent state are now accepted in customary international law as the criteria for identifying such states. What are those criteria?: ARTICLE 1. The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states. Importantly these criteria were considered by a commission set up by the European Union at the time of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia…Can anyone set out a counter argument as to why, from the day the treaty comes into force, the European Union is not, at the very least, potentially, a Sovereign Independent State?...

Michael Huntsman, Brussels Journal, Jan. 4, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

As US turns on Israel, cracks form in the Great American Empire
As the United States Government leads and brokers the 'peace' process to split and divide Israel in order to establish a Palestinian Terror State, it seems that some cracks are starting to form in its own empire. One can't help but notice that when the U.S. Administration presses Israel to give up land, something bad happens to America…Lakota Indians seceding, Alaskans flirting with independence, Iranian build up on the Pacific, and millions of unknown illegal immigrants draining the USA of its resources [some wanting to form their own country in the American Southwest], and widening the holes of U.S. security. Could these all be cracks that will soon crumble the Great American Empire? Has America's time expired as the leading nation of the world?...

Tamar Yohah, Israeli Insider, Jan. 2, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/LA/MO)

2008: The year a new superpower is born [—China]
Here comes the world's newest superpower. The rest of the world is gloomily contemplating economic slowdown and even recession. Not in Beijing. China is set to make 2008 the year it asserts its status as a global colossus by flexing frightening economic muscle on international markets, enjoying unprecedented levels of domestic consumption and showcasing itself to a watching world with a glittering £20bn Olympic Games. The world's most populous nation will mark the next 12 months with a coming-of-age party that will confirm its transformation in three decades from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the globe's third-largest economy, its hungriest (and most polluting) consumer and the engine room of economic growth…There is no doubt that China has arrived as serious power-broker. Last year, it surpassed America as the greatest driver of global economic demand. It is also widely predicted to overtake Germany as the world's third largest economy this year…From global warming to Darfur and North Korea, the views of Beijing and its willingness to act have become prerequisites to any solution to the world's most pressing problems…Others warn 2008 has as much potential to be a disaster as a triumph for Beijing's attempts to herald its own arrival on the world stage. The Chinese capital will host 31,000 journalists for the Olympics and any sign of protest or an attempt to quell dissent with violence would be catastrophic…

Independent, Jan. 1, 2008
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (AP)

These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You [EU Treaty]
Today the European Union leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty. This treaty gives the EU the constitutional form of a state. These are the ten most important things the Lisbon Treaty does: 1. It establishes a legally new European Union in the constitutional form of a supranational European State. 2. It empowers this new European Union to act as a State vis-a-vis other States and its own citizens. 3. It makes us all citizens of this new European Union. 4. To hide the enormity of the change, the same name – European Union – will be kept while the Lisbon Treaty changes fundamentally the legal and constitutional nature of the Union. 5. It creates a Union Parliament for the Union's new citizens. 6. It creates a Cabinet Government of the new Union. 7. It creates a new Union political President. 8. It creates a civil rights code for the new Union's citizens. 9. It makes national Parliaments subordinate to the new Union. 10. It gives the new Union self-empowerment powers.…It is hard to think of any major function of a State which the new European Union will not have once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified. The main one seems to be the power to make its Member States go to war against their will. The Treaty does provide that the EU may go to war while individual Member States may "constructively abstain"…However the new European Union will have its own government, with a legislative, executive and judicial arm, its own political President, its own citizens and citizenship, its own human and civil rights code, its own currency, economic policy and revenue, its own international treaty-making powers, foreign policy, foreign minister, diplomatic corps and United Nations voice, its own crime and justice code and Public Prosecutor. It already possesses such normal State symbols as its own flag, anthem, motto and annual official holiday. As regards the State authority of the new Union, it is embodied in the Union' s own executive, legislative and judicial institutions: the European Council, Council of Ministers, Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice. It is also embodied in the Member States and their authorities as they implement and apply EU law and interpret and apply national law in conformity with Union law. Member States will be constitutionally required to do this under the Lisbon Treaty. Thus EU "State authorities" as represented for example by soldiers and policemen in EU uniforms on our streets are not needed as such. Allowing for the special features of each case, all the classical Federal States which have been formed on the basis of power being surrendered by lower constituent states to a higher Federal authority have developed in a gradual way, just as has happened in the case of the European Union. Nineteenth century Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia are classical examples. Indeed the EU has accumulated its powers much more rapidly than some of these Federal States – in the short historical time-span of some sixty years. The key difference between these classical Federations and the new European Union is that the former, once their people had settled, share a common language, history, culture and national solidarity that gave them a democratic basis and made their State authority popularly legitimate and acceptable. All stable States are founded on such communities where people speak a common language and mutually identify with one another as one people – a "We". In the EU however there is no European people or "demos", except statistically. The Lisbon Treaty is an attempt to construct a highly centralised European Federation artificially, from the top down, out of Europe's many nations, peoples and States, without their free consent and knowledge…

Anthony Coughlan, Brussels Journal, Dec. 31, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

When Brussels Wants To Know What We Think, It Asks Itself
The process of bringing the EU Constitution, now in the form of the Treaty of Lisbon, into force, regardless of the wishes of the peoples of Europe, has been one which has entailed considerable but highly secret planning. It is a reasonable inference that the British Foreign Office has lent its skills of deviousness and mendacity to this process and that the British government has played a full part in the subversion of democracy that this process entails: an inference borne out indisputably by the lengths to which Gordon Brown has gone, even to the extent of damaging his own Government and the Labour Party, in order to play his part in getting the Constitution into force across the European Union…Does it not tell us all that we need to know of the EU that its political elite actively and secretly conspires to prevent any of its citizens voicing an opinion contrary to its plans? That [this group] is confident of the success of its plot is evidenced by the continuing implementation of a part of the Treaty for which there is, as yet, no lawful basis…All will ask themselves: why and how do the Eurocrats feel such confidence? Might it be that the nature of their conspiracy against their own people, against democracy itself, is so well-planned and so deep-rooted in their hearts that they believe it to be all over bar the shouting? Which, as always, brings us back to that old chestnut: why, if the European Union Constitution is such a bright shining thing, a construct which will bring palpable and obvious benefits to all its citizens, is the political elite so afraid of asking our opinion on the matter? Or is it that they have excised utterly the words ‘NO’ and ‘democracy’ from the EU dictionary?...

Michael Huntsman, Brussels Journal, Dec. 29, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR)

Is Spain Breaking Apart?
Spain, unlike most countries, has become increasingly decentralized during the last few decades, with the central government shrinking relative to the regional governments. A small central government, with most government activities conducted at the regional and local level, can work just fine, as it has been the case in Switzerland for the last several hundred years, provided there is a national consensus as to how the power is to be shared. But this consensus has not yet occurred in Spain…About 30 percent of Spaniards traditionally support the right-leaning party. Another 30 percent support the left-leaning party (which is now in power). Most of the rest of the vote is split among the various regional parties, which allows them to serve as power brokers. They have used this power to further decentralize the government and work for more separatist policies…The open questions for Spain are: Will it return to the high-growth policies of the Aznar years and increase economic freedom or adopt more statist and growth-killing policies? And will it move toward constructive decentralization with regional and language tolerance, as it has been successfully done in Switzerland, or will the struggles over regional power (and language) paralyze the country as it is now happening in Belgium?...

Richard Rahn, Brussels Journal, Dec. 29, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

The Betrayal of Freedom in Europe: Back in the EUSSR
The EU rules stipulate that treaties only become effective when they have been ratified in all 27 member states. The "no" votes in the 2005 referendums killed the constitution, which would have transformed the EU from a supranational organization of 27 sovereign member states into a genuine single European federal state with 27 provinces. It was clear from the outset, however, that the peoples of the various European states were not willing to renounce their national sovereignty for a "United States of Europe." Nevertheless, the European leaders are determined, no matter what their electorates say, to transform the EU into a USE. As Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, said prior to the referendums: "If the vote is yes, we will say: We go ahead. If it is no, we will say: We continue." Or as the former president of France, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the chairman of the so-called convention, which drew up the constitution, said: "The rejection of the constitution [by the voters in referendums] was a mistake which will have to be corrected." In order to correct the voters' mistake the reform treaty was drafted. This treaty is a copy of the constitution, with the articles in a somewhat different order, with many additions to deliberately complicate the text and without references to a national flag or anthem. As Mr. Giscard explained in June to the Paris leftist paper Le Monde: "Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly [...] All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way"…Once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified in all member states, the legal nature of the EU will change into that of a state. The national constitutions and the national parliaments will be subordinate to the EU, which will be enabled to unilaterally increase its own powers. Europe's politicians are very eager to sell out their national sovereignty to the EU because the Brussels-based EU governing bodies are either unelected (the commission) or unaccountable (the council). Moreover, the European Parliament is not a real parliament. It cannot reject the so-called EU directives, which the national parliaments are obliged to incorporate into their national legislation. Even today, up to 70 percent of the legislation in the various 27 EU member states emanates from Brussels. Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has coined the term "EUSSR" to refer to the EU. He claims Europe is on its way to developing into a totalitarian state. In the early 1990s Mr. Bukovsky was given permission to research the secret documents of the Soviet leadership. To his amazement he found a transcript there of a conversation held during a visit in January 1989 of Mr. Giscard to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In this conversation the former declared to the latter that "within 15 years Europe is going to be a federal state." The USE project was delayed a bit by the 2005 referendums, but European politicians have managed to get it back on track in Lisbon…

Paul Belien, Brussels Journal, Dec. 19, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

Why Europe’s National Politicians Sign Away National Sovereignty
Although a lot of anti-EU rhetoric rightly concentrates on the overweening power of the unelected European Commission – which indeed generates far too many laws and has an institutional self-interest in augmenting its own power – what many Eurosceptics overlook is that European integration also, and crucially, favours the power of national governments [i.e. executive leaders] over that of their respective national parliaments. Because laws in the EU are made by the Council of Ministers, i.e. the committee of 27 ministers for whichever subject is being voted on, EU integration means that governments receive wide-ranging law-making powers. This is, of course, incompatible with the principle of the separation of powers. According to that principle, the executive power (the government) should be separate from, and accountable to, the legislature (the national parliament) and of course the judiciary. Dictatorship is precisely the form of government in which the executive is not so constrained, and this is also the case in the EU. Because the EU represents a dramatic and constant transfer of legislative power from national legislatures to national executives (sitting in the Council of Ministers), it can also be dubbed “a permanent coup d’état”… The fact that the Council of Ministers, the EU’s legislature, meets and votes in secret only makes the fundamentally anti-democratic character of the European construction even clearer. It is for this simple reason that all establishment politicians, whether of Left or Right, are in favour of the EU. It increases their power and their room for manoeuvre. How much easier it is to pass laws in a quiet and secret meeting with your twenty-seven colleagues, than it is to do so in front of a fractious parliament where there is usually an in-built opposition which will attack whatever you do! How much more comfortable to engage in a bit of mild horse-trading with like-minded politicians from other countries, than to have to argue your case in the glare of public criticism! How much better to be able to vote an unpopular law and then blame “Europe” for it instead! For many decades, this conspiracy worked wonderfully, mainly because Europe adopted and stuck to the so-called “Monnet method”. Named after the European Community’s brilliant if vain founder, Jean Monnet, the Monnet method consists in sapping power away from national parliaments on the quiet. This is achieved by pretending that the powers thus alienated are non-political – technical things like coal and steel, the common market, the single currency. This impression that the powers transferred are merely technical is reinforced by the fact that the transfers are usually effected by means of impenetrable treaties written in a language no one can understand…

John Laughland, Brussels Journal, Dec. 19, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/BR)

Anti-Americanism: It's About American Power, Not Policy
Although polls do indeed show that President Bush has brought anti-Americanism to the surface in many parts of the world, the roots of enmity toward America reach far deeper than one man and his policies. The problem of anti-Americanism will not go away just because Americans elect a new president. Contrary to much of today's conventional wisdom, anti-Americanism is not a recent phenomenon. In Europe, for example, anti-Americanism is as old as the United States itself. In fact, anti-Americanism is so established on the Old Continent that there are now as many different brands of anti-Americanism as there are European countries…Anti-Americanism is also a visceral reaction against the current distribution of global power. America commands a level of economic, military and cultural influence that leaves many around the world envious, resentful and even angry and afraid. Indeed, most purveyors of anti-Americanism will continue to bash America until the United States is balanced or replaced (by those same anti-Americans, of course) as the dominant actor on the global stage…In their quest to transform Europe into a superpower capable of challenging the United States, European elites are using anti-Americanism to forge a new pan-European identity. This artificial post-modern European "citizenship", which demands allegiance to a faceless bureaucratic superstate based in Brussels instead of to the traditional nation-state, is being set up in opposition to the United States…This is the dilemma America faces: If it wants to be popular abroad, it will have to pay in terms of reduced security. And if it determines to protect the American way of life from global threats, then it will have to pay in terms of reduced popularity abroad…Better…if the next president focuses on keeping America strong and secure, rather than on pleasing those who will never like the United States, even if its foreign policy changes. Better, also, for the next president to focus on wielding American power wisely, because doing so will earn the United States (grudging) respect, which in the game of unstable relationships that characterizes modern statecraft, is far more important than love…

Soeren Kern, American Thinker, Dec. 19, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/EU/WT)

The new European Union - the Empire Returns?
With the signing of the Lisbon Treaty on December 13, 450 million people are now under a new, single government…Bigger nations would get more voting power; thus Germany would be the most powerful member of the new Supernation, with 82 million people, compared to about 60 million for France, Britain, and Italy…This is an overtly anti-democratic EU, established by an overtly anti-democratic political class. The most astonishing fact is the apathy of ordinary Europeans, as shown, for example, by the trivial tabloid headlines in European newspapers; they are just not interested in the biggest political event of the last half century…The closest historical precedent is the unification of Germany by Otto Bismarck in 1871. That was not a happy event, in the longer term. The EU does not have to go the way of Bismarck's Second Reich, but it reflects very much the same aristocratic disdain of the ruling classes, and the same distrust of ordinary people. From an American point of view, it is high time to consider withdrawing all US troops from Europe, now that it has everything needed to defend itself…The idea of exercising great power is seductive, but it does not follow that the EU will exercise it responsibly. Europe has a disastrous political history, and hasn't shown any responsibility in the last decade…The EU has shown no interest in individual rights, only group rights under labels like gender, class and race. Structurally and ideologically the EU has much in common with the old Soviet Union, as many observers have pointed out. Like the USSR, it is a creation of a power elite…The EU will unquestionably try to control American actions and policies, always under the guise of international law and the greater good…There is a spirit of new European imperialism abroad, under the usual guise of love and compassion. Already the EU wants to expand into Northern Africa, supposedly for its "energy potential in solar and wind power." There is a great amount of boastfulness among the elites, and a considerable amount of depression and pessimism among the people. The EU is a socialist enterprise, and perhaps a social-democratic one; but that remains to be seen…

James Lewis, American Thinker, Dec. 13, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

United States: State Sponsor of Judeophobia
A terrible line was crossed at Annapolis…Under the auspices of a global "peace" conference, the White House sanctioned Jew-hatred…Submitting to Saudi demands, the Americans prohibited Israeli representatives from…entering the hall through the same door as the Arabs…[There were] separate entrance ways, service entrances for the Jews, refusal to touch or shake hands with a Jew, refusal of audience members to wear the translation earphones when Ehud Olmert spoke…Vile - all of it; sanctioned and institutionalized by the President of the United States…It is unfathomable to consider this with any other race, creed or color. Imagine separate entrances for the leader of an African nation because a "white" leader refused to walk through the same door as the black man, because it would be unclean? And Israel took it…They should have walked out like any self-respecting human would have done. But no, they lowered the bar yet again. Offering all and getting nothing…Continuing this tragedy, Condoleezza Rice later proclaimed, "I know what it's like as a Palestinian." Such willful stupidity is unacceptable in a US Secretary of State…The Palestinians are not the blacks of the Civil Rights movement or era; Abbas is not the great non-violent civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King (what an insult to even think this!); and Dr. King was a Zionist, a lover of Israel and the Jewish people's right to it. The Jews are not the KKK or the police with the dogs, either; this is not the old South, this is the very violent, blood-lusting Middle East…

Pamela Geller, Israel National News, Dec. 7, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/WT/MO)

A Bill of Rights Europe Did Not Need
Even if it were less woolly and silly, the Charter of Fundamental Rights could hardly become a force for good…

Anthony de Jasay, Library of Economics and Liberty, Dec. 3, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

For nations, small is beautiful
Europe seems intent on slicing itself up into ever smaller pieces. In the next month, Kosovo is likely to declare independence – making it the seventh new country to emerge from the wreckage of Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union has given way to 15 new states. Even in western Europe, there is talk of Belgium dividing in two, while a pro-independence party has taken power in Scotland…Taking pride in the sheer size of your country is increasingly anachronistic. Traditionally it has been good to be a big country for two main reasons: prosperity and security. A big country meant a bigger market and so more trade and wealth creation. A large nation was also more powerful and less likely to be invaded. But in the modern world, both these advantages seem to be diminishing. Globalisation has opened up markets across the world. China and India are getting richer largely because they have access to the markets of the developed world, not because of the size of their domestic markets. Small countries can trade their way to success even more swiftly. Think of Singapore or Switzerland. Small is also no longer synonymous with insecure. In Europe, many minnows have enhanced their security by joining Nato. This is sometimes denounced as free-riding. Belgium or Luxembourg can afford to be small, secure and smug – because they are under the security umbrella, proffered by big and generous Uncle Sam. But joining a collective security organisation is not an absolute necessity for a small country. Ireland and Switzerland are not members of Nato – and neither appears to be in imminent danger of invasion. The fact is large countries are now less instinctively expansionist than they were in the days of empire. These days, invading and occupying small countries can be a massive pain in the neck – as the US has discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the traditional disadvantages of being a tiddly country are disappearing, you are just left with the advantages…

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, Dec. 3, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

No, Bush Is Brilliant
The Arab Middle East has a narrow fence to walk. In order to save itself from a nuclear Iran, it must cooperate with America and Israel to solve the imminent threat of a nuclear Iran, with at least covert political and military cooperation. And in order to save itself from its homegrown militants, it has to be seen in public as standing up against America and Israel, the Great Satan and the Little Satan, respectively. Thus, Bush has to save the face of the Arabs, who will then (not very publicly, perhaps, but very discreetly, at least) support whatever the U.S. and Israel (and maybe France) are preparing to do to Iran. To save the Arabs' faces for them, Bush has to trot out the "peace process" dog and pony show with Olmert and Abbas. And, because Israel and the Palestinians have been long locked in the absurdly futile "peace process," punctuated by long interruptions for assorted wars and intifadas for 60 years, Olmert and Abbas can't refuse Bush's invitation to meet at Annapolis and talk about it, and the rest of the Middle East can come along to show solidarity with the Palestinians. And I think this symbolism is important. Very important…

Ramond Kraft, Family Security Matters, Dec. 1, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/ME/WT)

Perfecting a System of Total Control: How Brussels Regulates Our Daily Lives
The European Commission in Brussels wants to protect European citizens even more effectively against danger and disease. Soon there will be a well-intended -- but mostly completely unnecessary -- regulation for every aspect of life…In all seriousness, the EU's inspectors are keeping themselves busy coming up with more and more regulations to govern even the most hidden corners of human existence, and that will cover the length and breadth of the EU -- from Inari in northern Finland to Limassol on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus…

Spiegel, Nov. 23, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU)

In God’s name
Religion will play a big role in this century's politics…Philip Jenkins, one of America's best scholars of religion, claims that when historians look back at this century, they will probably see religion as “the prime animating and destructive force in human affairs, guiding attitudes to political liberty and obligation, concepts of nationhood and, of course, conflicts and wars.” If the first seven years are anything to go by, Mr Jenkins may well turn out to be right…

Economist, Nov. 1, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (GI/RE/WT)

America Wake Up! Europe Wants to Be a Superpower
European Union leaders have reached agreement on a new treaty that many Europeans hope will transform the 27-nation bloc into a superpower capable of counter-balancing the United States in global affairs…The biggest barrier to European superpowerdom is that European elites refuse to bring their postmodern fantasies about the illegitimacy of military "hard power" into line with the way the rest of the world interprets reality. After years of overselling the efficacy of diplomatic and economic "soft power" as the elixir for the world's problems, Europeans are losing, not gaining, international influence…So why do Europeans continue to assail American "hard power" as bad for the world, when their own "soft power" consistently fails to make the grade? Because America's military might magnifies the preponderance of US power and influence on the world stage, thereby exposing the fiction behind Europe's superpower pretensions. Because the United States has set the standard for what it means to be a superpower, European elites seek to de-legitimize one of the main pillars of American might, namely its military hard power. Europeans know they will never achieve hard power parity with America, so they want to change the rules of the international game to make soft power the only acceptable superpower standard. This is why Americans should care about further European integration: The EU is trying to make it prohibitively costly in the realm of international public opinion for the United States to use its military in the future. Ensconcing a system of international law based on its own image and on that of the United Nations is supposed to constrain American exercise of power. For Europeans, multilateralism is all about neutering American hard power, not about solving international problems. It is about Lilliputians tying down Gulliver…

Soeren Kern, American Thinker, Oct. 24, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (EU/US/WT)

While most Christians embrace Christmas, a few churches say it's not a [proper] religious holiday
As Christmas draws near, Pastor John Foster [of the United Church of God in Princeton, West Virginia] won't be decorating a tree, shopping for last-minute gifts or working on a holiday sermon for his flock…He's one of very few American Christians who follow what used to be the norm in many Protestant denominations — rejecting the celebration of Christmas on religious grounds…His church's objection to Christmas is rare among U.S. Christians. Gallup polls from 1994 to 2005 consistently show that more than 90 percent of adults say they celebrate Christmas, including 84 percent of non-Christians… "It's common knowledge that Christmas and its customs have nothing to do with the Bible," said Clyde Kilough, president of the United Church of God, which has [congregations] all over the world. "The theological question is quite simple: Is it acceptable to God for humans to choose to worship him by adopting paganism's most popular celebrations and calling them Christian?"…

Associated Press, Dec. 16, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/RE/MO)

‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’ says it best according to leading group of pediatricians
The American College of Pediatricians finds spanking is an effective way to discipline your kids that, if handled correctly, does not harm them…

Focus on the Family News, Dec. 7, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (US/MO/ST)

Nehemiah's wall uncovered
The remnants of a wall from the time of the prophet Nehemiah have been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, strengthening recent claims that King David's palace has been found at the site, an Israeli archeologist said Wednesday…

Jerusalem Post, Nov. 28, 2007
Posted here Jan. 18, 2008 (ME/RE)

Dutch researcher claims to confirm Queen Jezebel's seal
For some 40 years, one of the flashiest opal signets on display at the Israel Museum had remained without accurate historical context. Two weeks ago, Dutch researcher Marjo Korpel identified article IDAM 65-321 as the official seal of Queen Jezebel, one of the bible's most powerful and reviled women. Israeli archaeologists had suspected Jezebel was the owner ever since the seal was first documented in 1964…

From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated October 11, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/RE)

A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation
The "Jewish State" is allowing Judaism's holiest site to have its priceless artifacts destroyed and nobody seems to care…

From Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks at Jewish World Review (dated September 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/RE)

Israeli and Palestinian authorities are failing to protect the Temple Mount
I don’t know who are worse: the Muslim religious authorities digging up Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, or the Israeli authorities who are allowing it to happen…

From Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks in The Wall Street Journal, reposted at Biblical Archaeology Society (dated July 18, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE)

Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament
Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out…a [joyful] cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact. Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered - Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon. Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim…"This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," [British Museum expert] Dr [Irving] Finkel said yesterday. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power"…

From The Telegraph (London) (dated July 13, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (RE)

Pope pious?
Efforts to canonize Pope Pius XII as a saint of the Catholic Church are in high gear. The pope who reigned during the Holocaust, whose detractors have called him "Hitler's Pope" and defenders say used his moral and political influence to save thousands of Jews, is once again dominating conversations in the Vatican…Dozens of research projects, articles and books, written by Jews and non-Jews, were published on the heels of [a 1963] play. All the works - from Saul Friedlander's book, "Pius XII and the Third Reich" to John Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope" - ostensibly prove that the pope had supported the Nazis. Pius XII's decision to shelve an edict issued by his predecessor, Pius XI, which supposedly condemns Fascism and Nazism, is likewise proof of his attitude. But books and articles have also been published in defense of Pius XII, most of them written by Catholic clergymen, but some by rabbis and Jewish authors…One of the most lethal attacks on the silence of the pontiff during the Holocaust came from Susan Zuccotti, whose book "Under His Very Windows" was published in 2002. In her book, Zuccotti examines the pope's silence even as the Italians began arresting the Jews of Rome. The Vatican intervened only in cases where a Jewish man was married to a Christian woman and had himself converted to Christianity. Additional studies reveal that Pius XII also did not protest when the Nazis banished 1,000 Italian Jews to the extermination camps. However, he did take real steps before the start of World War II to help some 3,000 Jews who converted to Christianity from different parts of Europe obtain immigration visas to Brazil…The defense of Pius XII comes from members of the Catholic Church, but a few Jews have also chimed in, most notably Rabbi David Dalin, whose book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope" refutes the attacks on the pontiff. The defenders' main contention is that the pope carried out all his actions secretly because he feared that openly criticizing the Nazis would only worsen the situation of the Jews and Catholics in occupied Europe. Other historians confirm that the pontiff did act secretly, but that he did so only after 1942, when the Americans warned that those who had participated in the persecution of the Jews would face punishment, and when it became clear to the Vatican that the Allies would win the war…It is doubtful whether it is possible to decide one way or the other on this matter as long as the Vatican denies access to all the documents in its archives from the period of the war…

From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated July 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (EU/RE)

There is only one acceptable way to talk about homosexuality -- SILENCE!
Christians arrested merely for handing out pamphlets which call homosexuality a sin? Postal workers refusing to deliver mail they deem to be "homophobic?" A pastor forced to pay for police protection after gay activists threatened to picket a church event? What ever happened to free speech? More and more, in the U.S., Canada and Europe, homosexual activists and their straight sympathizers are trying to ensure that the only speech that's tolerated is the pro-gay kind…

From American Family Association Journal news editor Ed Vitagliano at One News Now (dated May 31, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE/MO)