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Many readers will rejoice - fittingly on this Gaudete Sunday - to learn that last Thursday, 10 December 2009, the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Zita, last Empress of Austria and wife of Blessed Emperor Charles, was solemnly opened by His Excellency Msgr. Yves Le Saux, Bishop of Le Mans, France. The process was opened in Le Mans, and not in the Swiss diocese of Chur, where the Empress died 20 years ago in 1989 in Zizers, with the consent of Msgr. Huonder, the Bishop of Chur, and the permission of the Congregation for the Causes of...

The young woman stood naked in her downtown office building, swaying next to an open window. Her final words were sudden and calm: ''I know I am going to jump.'' Rebekah Lawrence -- so modest and shy she often blushed around others -- burst into song and leaped out the window. Lawrence died that day. But her mind had begun to show cracks a few days before, as she finished an intense self-help seminar called The Turning Point. The course had pledged to change her life. Instead, some say, it led to her death. Lawrence's death was not the first...

What better source could you have than N.A.S.A. about a significant cause of "global warming" on the eve of "Earth Day 2009"? It is now official - clean air regulations have prevented sulfates (from coal and oil), which have a cooling effect, from entering the atmosphere. The sulfates are antagonists to the effects of black carbon from diesel and biofuel, which contribute to warming. Read below: Aerosols May Drive a Significant Portion of Arctic Warming - 04.08.09 http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/warming_aerosols.html Synopsis: Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate...

Putting it Altogether: THE TRUTH about our ECONOMIC CRISIS Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=related Clinton administration's "BANK AFFIRMATIVE ACTION" They forced banks to make BAD LOANS and ACORN and OBAMA’S tie to all of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64 Fannie Mae CEO calling Obama and the Dems the "Family" and "Conscience" of Fannie Mae: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0&feature=related Barack Obama Trained ACORN Staff In How To Intimidate Banks Into Giving Subprime Loans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&feature=related Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial mess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&feature=related

A federal court case in Pittsburgh could reach the U.S. Supreme Court for a "groundbreaking" decision about whether police officers need probable cause and search warrants to use GPS technology when tracking suspects, a local expert in constitutional law said. Across the country, detectives are using the sometimes-controversial technology to investigate cases. But Pennsylvania law doesn't clearly dictate rules, said University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor John Burkoff, author of the "Search Warrant Law Deskbook." "The law isn't entirely clear," Burkoff said. "There are many areas open to challenge, and to be safe, the best bet would be for...

TAMPA, FLA. - Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-75 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified the highway intersection.]

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan's luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop," says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics. Shaken by the encounter, Hogan says he left the airport and examined his bags, finding that...

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden vowed Friday to fight Israel for the liberation of the Palestinians, claiming their cause is at the heart of al-Qaida's holy war with the West. The terrorist leader's third statement this year was released to coincide with the Jewish state's 60th anniversary and came out as President Bush was wrapping up his visit to Israel to celebrate the occasion. "We will continue our struggle against the Israelis and their allies," bin Laden said in a 10-minute audio posted on an Internet site used frequently by al-Qaida. "We are not going to give up an...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2007 – Over the last year, coalition forces have laid the foundation for stability and provincial Iraqi control in Anbar province, the commander of Multinational Force West said today. “Our strategy of clear, hold and build, combined with an energized governmental and tribal engagement, is beginning to bear fruit,” Marine Maj. Gen. Walt Gaskin told reporters at the Pentagon via satellite. Progress is evident in the region’s increased Iraqi security forces recruiting figures, decreased number of attacks, and in the upswing in economic commerce, he said. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s benchmark visit to the region, Gaskin...

Madrid - Holidaymakers may be ruining their favourite destinations through pollution and greenhouse gases, making the tourism industry one of the world's worst polluters, experts say. A flight to that pristine beach and a few nights in an air-conditioned hotel room, when repeated on the mass scale of modern tourism, is all it takes to put the holiday business on a polluting par with heavy industries. "Tourism is unfortunately one of the vectors of (climate) change at the moment and contributes, through its excesses, to the process of global warming," World Tourism Organisation (WTO) director general Francesco Frangialli told an...

Bird flu triggers high and sustained virus buildup, cause of severe disease 15:13:05 EDT Sep 10, 2006 Canadian Press: HELEN BRANSWELL (CP) - The severe disease that H5N1 avian flu provokes in people appears to be caused by the virus's ability to replicate at unusually high levels for a prolonged period - an overwhelming assault that triggers a massive and devastating immune system response, a new scientific paper suggests. Interrupting that process before it reaches the tipping point is critical, say the authors of the article, who based their observations on detailed study of 18 H5N1 patients in Vietnam. But...

Everyone knows hot dogs aren't exactly healthy for you, but in a new study chemists find they may contain DNA-mutating compounds that might boost one's risk for cancer. Scientists note there is an up to 240-fold variation in levels of these chemicals across different brands. "One could try and find out what the difference in manufacturing techniques are between the brands, and if it's decided these things are a hazard, one could change the manufacturing methods," researcher Sidney Mirvish, a chemist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told LiveScience. Mirvish and his colleagues examined hot dogs because...

Proposed Doctrine for the Network. Can it be improved? YES, very much so. The Common Cause Partners of the Anglican Communion Network are being asked to adopt the doctrinal statement printed below at its meeting at the beginning of August 2006. “Proposed Theological Statement of the Common Cause Partners We, the representatives of the Common Cause Partners, do declare we believe the following affirmations and commentary to contain the chief elements of Anglican Reformed Catholicism, and to be essential for membership. 1) We receive the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Scripture as the inspired...

Democrats rip GOP on Social Security planBy MIKE WILSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 21 minutes ago DES MOINES, Iowa - The Republican plan to privatize Social Security could cause huge debt for decades, a Democratic candidate seeking a House seat in Iowa, a state with a high concentration of elderly residents, said Saturday. "If the Republican plan is allowed to pass, future generations both here and across the country will be saddled with decades of debt and no guaranteed retirement security," Bruce Braley said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. Braley, 48, a lawyer from Waterloo, faces Republican Mike...

6/5/2006 - RADWINYA PALACE COMPLEX, Iraq (AFPN) -- Many Airmen deploy to foreign countries for months, never seeing the people whose lives they affect. They are either hundreds of miles from the conflict or are within the safety of their military compound for their entire tours. But for Airmen at Sather Air Base at Baghdad International Airport, they can finally link local faces to the operation in which they serve. Since September, Airmen from Sather AB have been spending a few days a week visiting the Army’s Civil Military Operations Center, or CMOC. They have touched the lives of thousands...

Does Arnold Schwarzenegger want to be a 1970s Democrat? It’s starting to look like the the governor is trying to channel what was cool when he was in his bodybuilding heyday in ‘70s era Santa Monica. First the surprise trip to United Farm Workers headquarters last Friday to commemorate Cesar Chavez Day. Then yesterday’s press release reminder that Rolling Stone magazine dubbed him one of 25 environmental "Warriors and Heroes." Can an Eagles fundraising concert be far behind? This as his office hurriedly released the administration’s long-in-the-making Climate Action Report and announced an April 11th Climate Action Summit in San...

Melting Ice Threatens Sea-Level Rise By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The Earth is already shaking beneath melting ice as rising temperatures threaten to shrink polar glaciers and raise sea levels around the world. By the end of this century, Arctic readings could rise to levels not seen in 130,000 years — when the oceans were several feet higher than now, according to new research appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Even now, giant glaciers lubricated by melting water have begun causing earthquakes in Greenland as they lurch toward the ocean, other...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2006 – With support from the United States and India, the universal value of freedom has the power to change the world for the better, President Bush said in New Delhi today. "The United States and India, separated by half the globe, are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," Bush said on the second day of his two-day stay in India. "India in the 21st century is a natural partner of the United States, because we are brothers in the cause of human liberty." Bush...

In her new book, "The Death of Feminism" (Palgrave Macmillan, $24.95), feminist pioneer Phyllis Chesler describes her disastrous 1961 marriage to her college boyfriend, a Muslim from Afghanistan. When they returned to his homeland, she says, she was segregated from men, given inedible food and placed under virtual house arrest. By the time her father-in-law allowed her to return to the U.S., she was pregnant, had hepatitis and weighed 90 pounds. It's a dramatic story, and one that figures prominently in the rest of the book, an extensive but mostly anecdotal argument that Islam, as it is currently practiced, harshly...

In 1998, when Rob Reiner led the fight for an initiative that would add a 50-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes to pay for child development programs, a common media theme was that the actor-director might be naive, but, boy, wasn't his idealism refreshing? Imagine, a wealthy Hollywood type putting up his own time and money because he was so worried about nurturing children. But five years after the passage of the California Children and Families First Initiative, Reiner and his allies have abandoned any claim to the moral high ground. Their role in the misuse of taxpayer dollars for what is...