Pakistan Holds US Diplomat Accused of Murder

LAHORE, Pakistan — A Pakistani court on Friday ordered an American official, arrested in the killing of two Pakistanis, to be held for another two weeks while the authorities prepared charges in what the police called a “coldblooded” murder.

The official, Raymond A. Davis, 36, whose arrest has a cast a deep chill over relations between the United States and Pakistan, said he acted in self-defense when he shot the men in an attempted daylight robbery on Jan. 27.

After a 30-minute, closed-door court hearing, the Lahore city police chief, Aslam Tareen, said that Mr. Davis had committed “cold blooded” murder, a statement that appeared likely to further inflame the highly contentious case. Mr. Davis was transferred to a crowded city jail to await formal charges.

A lawyer for Mr. Davis, Hassam Qadir, asked Judge Aneeq Anwar Chaudry of the Municipal Court to adhere to the principles of diplomatic immunity and release Mr. Davis. The State Department has repeatedly said that he is protected by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention and must be released immediately.

Read the rest here.

GOP Leadership Promises Steeper Cuts In Spending

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders said Thursday that they would accede to demands from conservatives and dig deeper into the federal budget for billions of dollars in additional savings this year, exhibiting the power of the Tea Party movement and increasing chances of a major fiscal clash with Democrats.

In response to complaints from rank-and-file Republicans that the party was not fulfilling a campaign promise to roll back domestic spending this year by $100 billion, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said his panel would abandon its initial plan and draw up a new one to slice spending more aggressively.

“Our intent is to make deep but manageable cuts in nearly every area of government, leaving no stone unturned and allowing no agency or program to be held sacred,” Representative Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who leads the committee, said.

Read the rest here.

Switzerland Freezes Bank Accounts Linked to Mubarak

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss government on Friday froze any assets belonging to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or his family in Switzerland.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said the order took effect immediately but gave no details on what bank accounts or other assets Mubarak or his family might have in Switzerland.

He spoke as pro-democracy demonstrators in Cairo were jubilantly celebrating the announcement that Mubarak has resigned after nearly three decades of authoritarian rule and handed power over to the military.

"(The government) wants to avoid any risk of misappropriation of state-owned Egyptian assets," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It also forbid the sale of any assets, especially real estate holdings.

Read the rest here.

Mubarak Quits

The Egyptian dictator has resigned (or more likely was forced out by the military). Hysterical celebrations have erupted throughout the country. It's not clear who is running the government.

Brrrrr

Bitterly cold here with temps well below zero overnight and into the morning. Hoping to warm up to a balmy 20+ degrees over the next few days.

European Court of Human Rights forces Britain to give the vote to prison convicts

Despite David Cameron again outlining his personal abhorrence at allowing prisoners to take part in elections, it became clear that Downing Street and the Ministry of Justice accept that the measure will, in some form, have to be adopted because Britain is bound by European human rights laws.

After a six hour debate MPs voted by 234 to 22 to reject a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Britain must let some prisoners vote.

The Daily Telegraph first disclosed in November that the Prime Minister had been told by Government lawyers that he faced a welter of compensation claims from inmates if he did not agree to abide by the European ruling. Mr Cameron reluctantly admitted defeat.

He has since repeatedly talked of his distaste for the plans and yesterday again set out why he believed it was wrong.

Mr Cameron said: “I just think that if you are sent to prison and you have committed a crime then you give up the right to be able to vote.

Read the rest here.

Tobacco-Free Hiring in Workplaces

Smokers now face another risk from their habit: it could cost them a shot at a job.

More hospitals and other medical businesses in many states are adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants, saying they want to increase worker productivity, reduce health care costs and encourage healthier living.

The policies reflect a frustration that softer efforts — like banning smoking on company grounds, offering cessation programs and increasing health care premiums for smokers — have not been powerful-enough incentives to quit.

The new rules essentially treat cigarettes like an illegal narcotic. Applications now explicitly warn of “tobacco-free hiring,” job seekers must submit to urine tests for nicotine and new employees caught smoking face termination.

This shift — from smoke-free to smoker-free workplaces — has prompted sharp debate, even among antitobacco groups, over whether the policies establish a troubling precedent of employers intruding into private lives to ban a habit that is legal.

“If enough of these companies adopt theses policies and it really becomes for difficult for smokers to find jobs, there are going to be consequences,” said Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, who has written about the trend. “Unemployment is also bad for health.”

Read the rest here.

Leader of Ukrainian Greek Rite Catholics Resigns

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, has resigned at the age of 77.

Cardinal Husar asked Pope Benedict XVI to accept his resignation because of his declining health, according to informed sources within the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The Pope has reportedly accepted his request, although no official announcement has yet been released.

The resignation of the Ukrainian prelate, who has led the Eastern-rite Church since 2001, would trigger a meeting of the Ukrainian Synod of Bishops to elect a new Major Archbishop.

With well over 7 million faithful—including large numbers in the US and Canada as well as Ukraine-- the Ukrainian Catholic Church is by far the largest of the Byzantine churches in communion with the Holy See. Brutally persecuted during the Stalin era, the Ukrainian Catholic Church emerged with new vigor in Ukraine after the fall of the Communist regime.

Ukrainian Catholics have argued forcefully for the recognition of a Ukrainian Catholic patriarchate. The late Pope John Paul II reportedly gave that possibility serious consideration, but was ultimately dissuaded by the recognition that the Russian Orthodox Church, which claims Ukraine as part of its historical sphere– would vehemently object.

In 2005, under the guidance of Cardinal Husar, the major see of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was moved from Lviv to Kiev, the nation’s capital. That move was opposed by the some Orthodox leaders, particularly in Moscow, who saw it as a bid to extend Catholic influence in a region that has been mostly Orthodox.

Source

Egypt: Mubarak defies protestors; remains in office

The situation is now extremely dangerous. There is a very real possibility that this could turn violent at any moment.

China's Central Bank Advised to Massively Increase Its Gold Reserves

CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – China’s central bank is being advised to increase its gold holdings nearly tenfold to a level greater than the world’s biggest bullion depository, the US’s "Fort Knox".

Global economist David Hale, who addressed the packed Mining Indaba in Cape Town attended by a record 5 700 people, says that China’s gold reserves are currently at 1 050 t – only $30-billion to $40-billion compared with the country’s total assets of $2,8-trillion.

Various officials in China have proposed the central bank should increase its gold reserves to 10 000 t, which would give China larger gold reserves than Fort Knox.

“This would be a huge development for the gold market,” he says, with global mining output of gold only at 2 500 t a year.

“China will probably start to buy gold in the near future, but they won’t report it for two or three years,” Hale says.

When China announced new gold reserves from 600 t to 1 050 t in April 2009, purchsing had been done in the preceding years..

“The odds very much favour China making, over five years, very large gold purchases, and this in turn makes me bullish on the gold price,” he adds.

In addition to the central bank purchases of gold, preliminary data suggests that the Chinese private sector has bought 300 t of gold in the last year, compared with zero three to four years ago.

Given the rising Chinese incomes and inflation, Chinese private demand for gold could increase in the next few years to the historical levels of India, which for many years has been the world’s largest private buyer of gold.

“China offers the prospect of very healthy demand for gold and this could over the next couple of years set the stage for further major gains in the price of gold.”

Source

The Chinese are waking up to the reality expressed more than 100 years ago by JP Morgan...

"Gold is money. Everything else is paper."

IMF Director calls for new world currency

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar and protect against future financial instability.

“Global imbalances are back, with issues that worried us before the crisis - large and volatile capital flows, exchange rate pressures, rapidly growing excess reserves - on the front burner once again,” Strauss-Kahn said. “Left unresolved, these problems could even sow the seeds of the next crisis.”

“When we worry about the deficiencies of the international monetary system, we are mostly worrying about volatility,” he added. There is “a sense that money sometimes flows around the globe in too-volatile a fashion and that countries need a more stable, more predictable external environment in order to prosper”, he said.

He suggested adding emerging market countries' currencies, such as the yuan, to a basket of currencies that the IMF administers could add stability to the global system.

Read the rest here.

There is already a global currency. It's called gold.

Prince William begins stepping into ceremonial role

Prince William has received his first honorary Army appointment - becoming Colonel of the Irish Guards.

The Queen has given her formal approval for the honour which will see the prince take a close interest in the lives and activities of the regiment's personnel.

William, 28, succeeds Major General Sir Sebastian Roberts who previously held the post.

The second-in-line to the throne already holds honorary ranks in the RAF and Royal Navy.

In 2006 he was made Commodore-in-Chief of Scotland and Commodore-in-Chief of Submarines, and two years later was appointed Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Coningsby near Lincoln.

William is the Irish Guards' first royal colonel and its Colonel-in-Chief is the Queen.

The regiment was formed on April 1, 1900 by order of Queen Victoria in response to the courageous actions of Irish regiments in the Second Boer War.

The unit is heavily involved in ceremonial duties but its servicemen are also fighting soldiers who are currently in Afghanistan.

Source

Obama Says Plan to Expand Wireless Access Is Critical

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Declaring that “we can’t expect tomorrow’s economy to take root using yesterday’s infrastructure,” President Obama traveled to this snowbound town in a remote corner of Michigan on Thursday to make the case that expanding wireless access is critical to the nation’s economic recovery.

“This isn’t just about a faster Internet or being able to find a friend on Facebook,” Mr. Obama said in a speech at Northern Michigan University here, after viewing a demonstration on long-distance learning over the Internet.

“It’s about connecting every corner of America to the digital age,” the president said. “It’s about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers can monitor weather across the state and markets across the globe. It’s about an entrepreneur on Main Street with a great idea she hopes to sell to the big city. It’s about every young person who no longer has to leave his hometown to seek new opportunity — because opportunity is right there at his or her fingertips.”

In his State of the Union address last month, Mr. Obama called for securing high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans within five years; on Thursday, the White House released details of how he would spend billions of dollars for the plan, which also includes a high-tech wireless public safety system that would tie cities and towns together in the event of a national emergency like the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Read the rest here.

Extreme weather pushes food prices higher

Among the economic havoc brought by this winter’s extreme weather, none has been more severe than the impact on the global food supply chain.

Over the past few years, rising global demand for crops and production shortfalls have whittled grain surpluses to historically low levels. As extreme weather continues to cut production, those surpluses have shrunk further and forced prices higher.

Now meteorologists and weather risk analysts are warning that more frequent floods and droughts may continue to crimp production and keep foods supplies tight for years to come. Until surpluses of key grains can be restored to more normal levels, weather-related crop failures will produce more price spikes.

Read the rest here.

Egypt: Mubarak likely to step down under pressure

Breaking news from Egypt.

Britain faces dementia catastrophe without 'aggressive' research drive

Britain faces a “dementia catastrophe” unless Alzheimer’s is tackled with the same aggression as the fight against Aids, charities are warning.

More people fear being diagnosed with the debilitating brain condition above anything else than fear cancer or death itself, research shows.

A million people in Britain will suffer some form of dementia within two decades, and one in three pensioners will die with it, figures suggest.

Yet 12 times as much is spent each year on cancer research, and there are six times as many scientists working on how to treat tumours. Currently, as many as two-thirds of people who develop dementia are never diagnosed while the best treatments can only help reduce symptoms and cannot prevent the degenerative disease progressing.

At the launch of a campaign by Alzheimer’s Research UK to increase the “pitifully low” investment in dementia, Sir Terry Pratchett, the author, said: “Alzheimer’s is a large number of small tragedies usually played out behind closed doors, so in spite of the numbers living with it, the world still doesn’t take much notice.

Read the rest here.

Ecumenism V: Met. Hilarion weighs in

There’s been encouraging — sometimes tantalizing — news in recent years about the growing potential for Catholic-Orthodox unification. Pope Benedict XVI is said to be viewed more favorably by the Orthodox than his predecessor. The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow exclaimed in 2009 that unity with the Orthodox could be achieved “within months.” And the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation issued a document last October that envisions practical steps each Church can begin taking to begin the process of reunification.

But Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev is a lot more cautious about any predictions of imminent unity between East and West. Archbishop Hilarion heads the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, a position that was held by now-Patriarch Kirill before Patriarch Alexei died in 2008.

At 44, Hilarion has experienced a meteoric rise in the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church. A brilliant theologian and author, he was elected bishop at age 35, has served as bishop of Vienna and head of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions in Brussels. He is deeply involved in ecumenical dialogues with the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.

He’s also an accomplished composer and is in New York for the U.S. English-language premiere of his St. Matthew Passion oratorio this evening. He also delivered the annual Father Alexander Schmemann lecture at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., on Saturday, where he spoke about the meaning of icons in the Orthodox Church.

Thanks to Father John Behr and Deborah Belonick of St. Vladimir’s, I was able to sit down with Archbishop Hilarion for a chat after the lecture. Here’s a transcript of our conversation.

Read the rest here.

Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of The Assumption

click to enlarge

See the post at New Liturgical Movement for more really awesome imagery of the liturgy.

Irish priests try to stop new Mass translation

A group representing more than 400 of Ireland’s 4,500 priests has made an urgent plea to the country’s bishops to postpone the introduction of the new English translation of the Missal for at least another five years.

The call from the Association of Catholic Priests came as the National Centre for Liturgy in Maynooth launched a new publication aimed at explaining and preparing priests and lay people for the changes in the Missal. The new texts will be introduced on November 27, the first Sunday of Advent and the start of the liturgical year.

At a news conference in Dublin, representatives from the priests’ group said the proposed literal translations from Latin had produced texts that were “archaic, elitist and obscure and not in keeping with the natural rhythm, cadence and syntax of the English language”.

The association also criticised the new translation for “exclusivist, sexist language”.

Fr Dermot Lane, president of Mater Dei Institute of Education in Dublin, said the priests were making an 11th hour appeal to the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and urged the bishops to begin consulting with priests, liturgical committees and lay people to develop new texts that would inspire and encourage the faithful.

Read the rest here.

Ugg. If I were their bishop I would tell them that if you don't like the new translation you are free to stick to the Latin.

China again raises interest rates as inflation rages

HONG KONG — China staged its third interest rate increase since October on Tuesday, the latest sign of the authorities’ intensifying efforts to temper the blistering pace of economic growth and prevent already worrisome inflation levels from escalating further.

The central bank in Beijing raised its benchmark one-year deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 3 percent, and its one-year lending rate by a similar amount, to 6.06 percent.

The timing of the announcement, at the very end of the Lunar New Year holiday, which has kept mainland Chinese markets shut for the past week, was in line with what many analysts had expected.

Read the rest here.