March 19, 2013

Catholic Church inaugurates Pope Francis in huge, open-air Mass


By Jason Horowitz
VATICAN CITY — The Catholic Church inaugurated Pope Francis as its first Latin American and Jesuit pontiff Tuesday morning. More than 150,000 faithful, joined by leaders from much of the secular and spiritual world, watched as the humble and hopeful Argentine was vested with the trappings of authority at an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
After waving and smiling from the open back of a popemobile that rolled through a grid of roads among the crowd, Francis, dressed in a white cassock and white skullcap, descended to the tomb of the apostle Peter, inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
Flanked by cardinals, the 266th pope knelt and bowed his head in prayer, then rose to offer incense. As church choirs chanted the litany of the saints, Francis emerged from the basilica, carrying a gold cross as a staff. He proceeded down a wide nave and behind a double-file line of the church’s cardinals, who were clad in golden robes and cream-colored mitres.
As the new pope stepped into the bright, sunny day, Argentines in the front row of the crowd waved their sky-blue and white flags.

Τι πρόσφεραν οι Έλληνες στην ανθρωπότητα;


«Είστε ανεύθυνος λαός», «Δεν πληρώνετε τους φόρους σας», «Είστε βολεμένοι», «Λειτουργείτε με ωχαδελφισμό», «Είστε τεμπέληδες»… είναι μερικές μόνο από τις φράσεις που χρησιμοποιούν σήμερα οι περισσότεροι Ευρωπαίοι -πολιτικοί και απλός λαός- για να μας χαρακτηρίσουν! Η κρίση μπορεί να έφερε τα πάνω-κάτω, όμως κανείς από αυτούς δεν πρέπει να ξεχνάει! Τι; Αυτά που η Ελλάδα έκανε για τον κόσμο ολόκληρο, προσφέροντας βασικά στοιχεία πολιτισμού και ανθρωπισμού. Κι αν το ερώτημα «Τι έκαναν οι Έλληνες για τον κόσμο» σάς φαίνεται… ρητορικό, ελάτε να δούμε μαζί 10 σημαντικά πράγματα που… ταξίδεψαν από τη χώρα μας σε ολόκληρο τον πλανήτη, για να γίνει καλύτερος!
1. Σύγχρονοι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες
Οι πρώτοι σύγχρονοι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες έγιναν το 1896 στην Αθήνα. Αν και το ελληνικό κράτος αντιμετώπιζε πολλά οικονομικάπροβλήματα, οι Έλληνες κατάφεραν να οργανώσουν τους πρώτους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες με μεγάλη επιτυχία. Η μικρή τότε Ελλάδα έστειλε στον κόσμο ένα μήνυμα ειρήνης και φιλίας μεταξύ των λαών, ενώ αυτή η πρώτη διοργάνωση έβαλε τα θεμέλια για μια διεθνή αθλητική οργάνωση που έμελλε να γίνει η μεγαλύτερη αθλητική γιορτή του πλανήτη!
2. Σύσταση δικαστηρίων
Η αρχική έννοια σύστασης δικαστηρίου για την απονομή δικαιοσύνης βρίσκεται στην ελληνική μυθολογία και μάλιστα γινόταν από τους ίδιους τους Ολύμπιους Θεούς, από τους οποίους προϊστορικά πέρασε στην Αρχαία Ελλάδα, αρχικά να απονέμεται από τους βασιλείς και αργότερα ανατέθηκε στα δικαστήρια. Στην αρχαία Αθήνα ονομαστά ποινικά δικαστήρια ήταν η Βουλή του Αρείου Πάγου, το Παλλάδιο, το Δελφίνιο και η Ηλιαία.

March 14, 2013

New Pope Shifts Church’s Center of Gravity Away From Europe

By 

ROME — The surprise selection on Wednesday of an Argentine, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, as the new pope shifted the gravity of the Roman Catholic Church from Europe to Latin America in one fell swoop, and served as an emphatic salute to the growing power of Latinos across the Americas.
The new pope took the name Francis and is the 266th pontiff of the church. He is the first pope from Latin America, and the first member of the Jesuit order to lead the church.
“I would like to thank you for your embrace,” the new pope, dressed in white, said in Italian from the balcony on St. Peter’s Basilica as thousands cheered joyously below. “My brother cardinals have chosen one who is from far away, but here I am.”
The selection electrified Latinos from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, and raised the hopes especially of those in Latin America, where 4 of every 10 of the world’s Catholics now live.

March 13, 2013

Révolte du Parlement de Strasbourg contre le projet de budget européen

Le Monde.fr |  • Mis à jour le 

Les chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement des Vingt-Sept pensaient avoir fait le plus dur. Après deux sommets – l'un, raté, en novembre 2012 ; l'autre, en février 2013, conclu à l'issue de vingt-six heures de discussions –, l'épineuse question du budget de l'Union européenne pour la période 2014-2020 semblait régée.

Au rabais, certes, avec un budget global en recul pour la première fois dans l'histoire de l'Union, mais le compromis était là, accepté y compris par leBritannique David Cameron, partisan d'une réduction drastique.
Mercredi 13 mars, le Parlement européen a totalement rebattu les cartes en adoptant massivement une résolution très critique du compromis trouvé le 7 février. Cette résolution, adoptée par 506 voix contre 161, indique que le Parlement, auquel le traité de Lisbonne de 2009 confère un droit de veto sur le sujet, "rejette sous sa forme actuelle" le projet de budget concocté par le Conseil européen.

U.S. officials warn N. Korea after it scraps armistice


By Anne Gearan and ,


The Obama administration bluntly warned North Korea on Monday that it will use military force if necessary to protect the United States and its allies in Asia from a North Korean nuclear strike or to prevent the impoverished North from selling nuclear weapons or expertise.
Washington announced fresh sanctions against North Korea on Monday amid rising tension on the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. military also began annual joint exercises with ally South Korea, over objections from North Korea and an announcement that it would nullify the 60-year armistice that ended the Korean War.
“Recently, North Korean officials have made some highly provocative statements,” White House national security adviserThomas E. Donilon told the Asia Society in New York. “North Korea’s claims may be hyperbolic, but as to the policy of the United States, there should be no doubt.”

March 12, 2013

New pope to inherit demystified office



VATICAN CITY — Papal conclaves historically created mystical figures, men transformed by divine authority into heirs of Saint Peter. But as 115 cardinals begin deliberations Tuesday to pick the next pope, observers say any successor to Benedict XVI is set to step into an office demystified by scandal and early retirement.
In other words, the magic might be gone from being pope.
For the most devout, the figure of the pope spoke with a nearly preternatural voice, vesting him with a transcending influence when, for instance, John Paul II called for the end of communism in the former Eastern bloc. But more than at any other point in recent history, Vatican watchers say the papacy has been brought back down to earth by Benedict’s unprecedented decision to step down and revelations of financial corruption in the Vatican and clergy sexual misconduct.
All of this could lead to a possible transformation for both the office of pope and the Roman Catholic church he leads.

March 07, 2013



By Thursday, March 7


They shut down the schools and the government for what turned out in much of the area to be light rain and a bit of a breeze.
But when “they” — beleaguered bureaucrats, politicians and educators — made that choice in the small of the night, all the experts were telling them that a big storm with an even bigger name was bearing down on the Washington region, preparing to snarl roads, snuff out power and cause all manner of chaos.

The pressure was enormous: Whether they called it Snowquester or Winter Storm Saturn, the nonstop media storm-mongering had raised expectations to supermarket-shelf-clearing levels. At 11 p.m. Tuesday, the dean of Washington weather forecasters, ABC Channel 7’s Bob Ryan, tweeted, “If any school in area is open tomorrow, somebody is nuts.”

Crowds Throng Caracas Streets to Salute Chávez


CARACAS, Venezuela — In a modest brown wood coffin covered in a Venezuelan flag, President Hugo Chávez was carried through the capital, Caracas, on Wednesday morning as crowds thronged the streets, cabinet ministers and top military officials walked alongside his black hearse, while hundreds of soldiers in green fatigues and other supporters followed in the yellow, blue and red caps of the national colors.
A priest said a prayer over the coffin before it was loaded on the hearse, and the national anthem was played. Mr. Chávez’s mother stood at one end with her head buried in a white handkerchief, overcome with tears. Along the route of the procession were thousands of people, many dressed in his movement’s characteristic red shirts, often crying and holding up cellphones to photograph the coffin as it passed from the hospital where he died to the military academy here in Caracas where he studied as a young, unheralded cadet.
He will lie in state there, in honor of a career that included a failed 1992 coup, a successful 1998 election campaign and then 14 years as the dominant, charismatic, divisive, beloved, reviled and three-times re-elected president of this oil-rich nation.