Pope Backs Turkey's Bid to Join European Union
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/europe/29pope.html?ref=3Dworld&page=
wanted=3Dall
By IAN FISHER and SABRINA TAVERNISE
The gesture of good will, a reversal of his position, was aimed at
blunting Muslim anger toward him.
Report Shows Muslims Near Bottom of Social Ladder
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/asia/29india.html?ref=3Dworld&pagew=
anted=3Dall
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
A report that found India's largest religious minority is "lagging
behind" has sparked new soul-searching about Muslim rights and
well-being.
China Plans to Install Bishop Without the Vatican's Consent
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/asia/29bishop.html?ref=3Dasia
By JIM YARDLEY and KEITH BRADSHER
The ceremony, which could occur as soon as Thursday, seems likely to
further damage already fraying efforts at reconciliation.
Journal Faulted in Publishing Korean's Claims
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/science/29stem.html?ref=3Dasia
By NICHOLAS WADE
Fraudulent stem cell reports that shook the scientific world could have
been prevented by extra review procedures, according to a panel
appointed by the journal Science.
'The Story of French'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/books/29grim.html?ref=3Deurope
By JEAN-BENO=CET NADEAU and JULIE BARLOW
Reviewed by WILLIAM GRIMES
The value of French as a vehicle of expression is one of the themes in
this well-told, highly accessible history of the language.
Pelosi Won't Pick Tainted Lawmaker for Key Post
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/washington/29intel.html?ref=3Dus
By MARK MAZZETTI and KATE ZERNIKE
Representative Alcee L. Hastings was a leading contender for
chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.
Controls on Bank-Data Spying Impress Civil Liberties Board
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/washington/29nsa.html?ref=3Dus
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Democrats in Congress have questioned the independence and resources of
the board and its ability to inquire deeply into highly classified
programs.
Obama and New Hampshire
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=3D745
This just in: Senator Barack Obama is headed to New Hampshire next
month to headline a 2006 Democratic victory party.
Non-Asians Show a Growing Interest in Chinese Courses
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/education/29mandarin.html
By NATASHA DEGEN
With its booming economy and aspirations to expand its global
influence, China may have achieved a victory in American classrooms.
A Slide Toward Segregation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR200611280=
1275.html
By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A23
A half-century after Brown v. Board of Education, it's come, amazingly,
to this: The Supreme Court, in the name of preventing race
discrimination, is being asked to stop local schools from voluntarily
adopting plans to promote integration.
Even more amazingly, the federal government -- a government that sided
with the black schoolchildren in Brown and has spent years helping
enforce the court's desegregation decree -- has entered the case on the
side of white parents challenging the plans.
Hagel's Moment?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR200611280=
1276.html
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A23
A month ago the idea that Sen. Chuck Hagel would make a serious run for
the Republican presidential nomination would have been a non-starter.
As an outspoken critic of President Bush on Iraq and other issues,
Hagel's way was blocked. His best hope was nomination by a quixotic
third party in an online convention.
It's a measure of the step change brought about by the Nov. 7 elections
that Hagel is now seriously exploring a GOP presidential bid. The
Republican blowout, he says, reflected a "breakdown of confidence and
trust in governance" and opened the way for what he believes will be
"the most wide-open presidential race since 1952." The Nebraska senator
says he will make a formal decision in the next two months on whether
to run.
Stepping Into Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR200611280=
1277.html
Saudi Arabia Will Protect Sunnis if the U.S. Leaves
By Nawaf Obaid
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A23
In February 2003, a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the
Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, warned President Bush
that he would be "solving one problem and creating five more" if he
removed Saddam Hussein by force. Had Bush heeded his advice, Iraq would
not now be on the brink of full-blown civil war and disintegration.
One hopes he won't make the same mistake again by ignoring the counsel
of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki
al-Faisal, who said in a speech last month that "since America came
into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited." If it does,
one of the first consequences will be massive Saudi intervention to
stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.
For Fiscal Conservatives, Losing May Be Liberating
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR200611280=
1381.html
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A02
All Republicans had a lousy November. For fiscal conservatives, the
gloom only started on Election Day, when the GOP lost control of
Congress.
Conservative candidates suffered humiliating losses in the House GOP
leadership elections. Democrats threatened to govern from the center,
turning conservatives into a minority of the minority. Milton Friedman,
the patron saint of free-market economics, died on Nov. 16. Just
yesterday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared to the New York
Daily News editorial board that "Reaganomics is dead."
Mission Impossible?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15938227/site/newsweek/
Pope Benedict XVI hopes his visit will offer a chance for healing. But
in moderate Turkey, interest groups see his visit as a chance to take
religious and political stands.
Web Exclusive
By Owen Matthews
Newsweek
Updated: 3:33 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2006
Nov. 28, 2006 - It was a very Turkish standoff. The venue was the large
cobbled square in front of Istanbul's ancient Haghia Sophia, a
favored local venue for protests for centuries. The antagonists were
two groups of women, both young, both in a uniform of sorts, but
reflecting two very different sets of social ideals. On one side, 150
middle-class women, all wearing colorful Islamic headscarves and long
Islamic coats, held printed banners protesting the Pope's visit. On
the other, lined up in a row, was a selection of Istanbul's finest:
female police in dark blue combat pants and plastic body armor,
wielding batons. The message from the authorities to the protesters was
simple enough: you send your Islamic womento stage a demonstration. We
have our secular women-in riot gear-to stop you.
Turkey
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/36aaa451abf3a10f
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=3Den&q=3D%28Turk+OR+Turks+OR+Tur=
kish+OR+Turkey+OR+Turkic%29&btnG=3DSearch+Blogs
Pope Benedict
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/6b977cbd6833dcd3
A Question of Freedom
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15896203/site/newsweek/
When Benedict XVI goes to Turkey, the media talk will be of Islam, but
the pope's visit could advance religious liberty for Orthodox
Christians.
By George Weigel
Newsweek
Dec. 4, 2006 issue - Rome and Constantinople formally parted ways via
mutual excommunications in 1054, after centuries of controversy in
which geography and language played perhaps as large a role as
controverted questions of theology and liturgical practice. However we
understand the reasons for the split between Roman Catholicism and
Orthodoxy, those mutual excommunications opened up a religious and
psychological fault line that would have profound historical
consequences throughout the second millennium of Christian history.
Ever since the historic 1964 meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI
and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, Catholic theologians and Orthodox
scholars have worked to close the breach formalized almost a thousand
years ago so that the church could once again "breathe with both
lungs," as the late Pope John Paul II liked to put it. So when Pope
Benedict XVI, successor of the apostle Peter, goes to Istanbul on Nov.
28 to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, successor of the apostle
Andrew, the pontiff's primary concerns will be ecumenical: how might he
and Bartholomew (who did some of his doctoral work in Rome) advance the
dialogue between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so that Peter and Andrew
and the churches they embody might, one day, find themselves again in
full communion with each other?
Wouldn't It Be Cool If You, Like, Became President? And You Totally
Gave Me A Job In The Cabinet Or Something?
http://www.talk.newsweek.com/politics/
Contributed by Holly Bailey
Message to Barack Obama: All this flirting with a 2008 presidential bid
is cute and all--and for some, very suspenseful--but would you just
announce you're running already? On Monday, one of Obama's biggest
boosters, Sen. ***** Durbin, launched an online petition urging his
fellow Illinois Dem to run for president. In a message emailed to
supporters and posted on his campaign Web site,
Calling It What It Is
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15937798/site/newsweek/
The media is finally referring to the Iraq conflict as a 'civil
war.' It shouldn't have taken so long.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 2:58 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2006
Nov. 28, 2006 - To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, Now we are
engaged in a great-or at least major-civil war, testing whether
this nation (of Iraq), or any nation (in the Middle East), can long
endure. On Monday, NBC News announced that "after careful
consideration," it decided that "the situation in Iraq with armed
militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas can now
be characterized as a civil war." The Los Angeles Times made the same
decision, and within a few days most of the mainstream news media (with
the exception, no doubt, of Fox News) will likely follow suit.
The root of the problem
Dilip Hiro
November 29, 2006 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2006/11/the_root_of_the_prob=
lem.html
Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki is all set to meet United States
President George W Bush in Amman on Wednesday, ignoring the warning by
Shia radical leader Muqtada al Sadr that his 30-strong bloc of MPs
would withdraw its support from his government if he did so. It is not
the first time that Sadr or some other Iraqi leader has threatened to
pull out of the present "national unity" cabinet as a pressure tactic,
but in vain.
Yet Maliki would be well advised to ponder Sadr's analysis that the
presence of the American troops is the root cause of the spiralling
violence. A recent poll in Iraq showed that 78% felt the presence of
foreign (non-Muslim) troops was provoking more conflict than preventing
it.
The faithful have departed
Sue Blackmore
November 29, 2006 09:15 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sue_blackmore/2006/11/a_nation_of_human=
ists.html
If you listen to our government, or even much of the media, you could
easily assume that nearly everyone belongs to a "faith community", and
that anyone who doesn't (like me) is in the minority. But a new survey,
commissioned by the British Humanist Association, suggests just the
opposite. In fact we British are an independent minded lot who don't
want to take things on faith and would rather base our lives on science
and evidence than on religious doctrine. What a relief!
These new results, released today, go right against claims from the
2001 census that 71% of the population of England and Wales are
Christians. The problem, says the BHA, is that the census asked, "What
is your religion?" among other questions on ethnicity. Their survey,
carried out by MORI with a representative sample, took a different
approach.
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