Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI did not intend to offend Muslim believers, said a Vatican spokesman on Friday, who accompanied him during his pilgrimage in Germany.
The Pope controversially quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
Gulfnews, September 15 – Iraq’s political system could collapse if death squads are not reined in, according to Sunni political leader Adnan Al Dulaimi on Thursday.
The statement comes after more than 80 dead bodies were found in and around Baghdad in just 48 hours.
Amid Iran-EU talks in the effort to convince the Iranian regime to stop it’s suspicious nuclear program and in the run-up to the decision by the international community on how to tackle these efforts by the mullahs to obtain nuclear weapons, Tehran launched, beginning from August 19, a series of ridiculous war games on its frontiers with Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan. These drills continued until September 8.
The war games were clearly an attempt to prevent a firm international decision against Tehran’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
According to the deputy commander of the Iran’s ground forces Brig. Gen. Hosseini, in these maneuvers the regime’s military “changed face and transformed into a flexible army to carry out irregular operations.â€
Internal sources say that contrary to regime’s propaganda that the maneuvers involved 12 military divisions, in reality only a handful of units took part in the drills from each division. The total number of involved personnel was hardly enough for a company or even a battalion. Tehran’s inability to deploy its military force was clearly evident in images that were broadcasted on state television.
Nima Sharif
Just two days after Ahmadinejad, Iran’s hardliner President, announced the completion of nuclear cycle in Natanz while making mockery of the United Nations Security Council Presidential Statement, an Iranian state-run daily Sharq on April 13, stressed on the connection between Iran’s nuclear projects and it’s meddling in Iraq. The daily wrote, “Iran’s infiltration of Iraq will once again empower the Iran, Syria and Lebanon triangle, and will realize our country’s great interests.†The daily added, “The nuclear dossier and the developments in Iraq move in paralleled on both sides of our current international objectives.â€
Current bloodsheds and rising tensions in Iraq which are intended to give chances of survival to the mullah’s regime in Iran have now been extended through Lebanon. Western observers point directly to Iran as the main instigator and mastermind of this war and relate the war to the developments in the nuclear dossier of this country.
In fact the current war in Lebanon could be viewed as another bargaining chip in Tehran’s hands and it clearly puts mullahs’ regime ahead of the West in their confrontation as the 5+1 is yet to sanction Iran for it’s nuclear activities while the mullahs have already ignited the war they have been promising all along through their messages and threats to the West that will happen if they are taken to the Security Council.
AFX, Sept 8 – Telecommunications equipment maker Motorola Inc. said Friday it has completed the acquisition of privately held Broadbus Technologies Inc., which provides technology for video on demand.
AFX, September 8 – The dollar strengthened against most major currencies Friday as a sell-off in the yen bolstered the U.S. currency.
In afternoon New York trading, the euro bought $1.2676, down from $1.2728 in New York late Thursday. The British pound dropped to $1.8649 from $1.8748.
AFX, Sept 3 – No other industry was devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks quite like the U.S. airlines.
Now — after nearly $40 billion in losses, bankruptcies at at least 10 U.S. airlines and the disappearance of more than 150,000 jobs — it is finally bouncing back. In many ways it may even be in better shape than before, thanks to federal government help and aggressive cost-cutting achieved in the wake of the disaster.
AFX, Sept 3 – Terrorism insurance has become increasingly common and affordable five years after Sept. 11. But that market has only emerged with the federal government’s pledge to serve as an insurer of last resort — assistance that is tenuous, and guaranteed only through the end of 2007.
AFX, Sept 3 – During the Cold War, Canada’s National Optics Institute developed a system to detect which type of enemy tank or fighter jet was approaching. After the Soviet Union’s demise, such threats were deemed less likely, and the technology sat on the shelf.
Reuters, August 31 – Hedgehogs have finally humbled burger giant McDonald’s after years of campaigning, forcing the company to redesign its killer McFlurry ice-cream containers.
Up to now the opening in the container has been large enough for hedgehogs to get their heads into for a lick of the left-over dessert — a trap they have then been unable to withdraw from, so dying of starvation in untold numbers.
