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News of the World
CHILE
Constitutional Court outlaws morning-after pillSANTIAGO - The Constitutional Court of Chile has voted 5-4 to outlaw the distribution of the morning after pill. The final text of the ruling has yet to be released, as the justices are wrapping up their opinions.
SOUTH AMERICA
Newspaper: Virgin Mary Prevented Colombia WarBOGOTÁ - The Colombian daily El Tiempo has reported that the high tensions between Colombia on the one side and Venezuela and Ecuador on the other de-escalated after President Uribe of Colombia had a rosary said in the chapel of the Presidential Palace. The prayer specifically implored the protection of Mary as patroness of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
AUSTRIA
Poll: Austrians desire EU treaty referendumVIENNA - Sixty percent of Austrians want a referendum on the new EU constitutional treaty according to an OGM poll. 85 percent believe they have not been properly informed about the treaty. 47 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the EU, compared to the 44 percent who are happy with the EU.
ARGENTINA
Shrub fires choke Buenos AiresBUENOS AIRES - The Argentine capital has been smoke-laden for nearly a week due to intentional fires started by farmers to clear shrubland north of the city.
SOUTH AFRICA
Armed gang raids Johannesburg courtJOHANNESBURG - An armed gang dressed as policemen invaded the office of a senior state prosecutor and stole documents relating to a number of pending high-profile criminal cases.
AUSTRALIA
For First Time, A Lady Viceroy for AustraliaCANBERRA - The Prime Minister announced that the current Governor of Queensland, Her Excellency Ms. Quentin Bryce AC, is to be appointed Governor-General of Australia, the Queen’s official representative in the southerly kingdom.
TRANSYLVANIA
Inspired by Kosovo, Szeklers seek autonomySEPSISZENTGYÖRGY - A remnant of the Hapsburg empire deep in the heart of Romania, the enclave of Hungarian-speaking Szeklers takes no notice of the Western powers’ insistence that the recognition of Kosovo is a one-off which sets no precedent.
ZIMBABWE
Zim paper: military junta has taken overHARARE - The Zimbabwean, an independent newspaper based in exile but with reporters on the ground in the troubled African nation, has reported that the ruling ZANU-PF party has effectively staged an auto-coup in association with the Army’s Joint Operations Command.
ARGENTINA
Farmers call truce in fight over taxesBUENOS AIRES - The leaders of Argentina’s farmers’ unions met with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Casa Rosada for over three hours to discuss the President’s plans to levy high taxes on the agricultural export market.
HUNGARY
Rail strike hits HungaryBUDAPEST - A ten-hour national railway strike in Hungary was compounded in the capital city by a subway, bus, and tram strike. The striking workers are seeking an 18% wage increase as well as protesting a 10% cut in services.
ROME
Atheists, Communists back Vatican’s moratorium ideaVATICAN - The Holy See is expanding an Italy-based campaign for a moratorium on abortion to the whole world and has found perhaps unexpected supporters in the cause: Communists, atheists, and others.
PORTUGAL
Doctors defy gov’t over abortionLISBON - The Portuguese doctor who refused to change the code of medical ethics to allow for abortion has been reelected President of the Portuguese Medical Association against the wishes of the country’s socialist government.
THE NETHERLANDS
Netherlands Primate Installed at UtrechtUTRECHT - His Excellency the Most Reverend Willem Jacobus Eijk was installed as Archbishop of Utrecht and Primate of the Netherlands in St. Catharine’s Cathedral, Utrecht on January 26, 2008.
VIETNAM
Vietnamese gov’t to give up seized church buildingHANOI - A building which once housed the Pope’s representative in Vietnam but was confiscated by the country’s Communist government will be returned to the Church after a decades-long struggle.
BOHEMIA
Klaus is reelected by a slim marginPRAGUE - Vaclav Klaus, the second (and current) President of the Czech Republic, was reeleected by a slim majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
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  The Other ModernWhile most postwar architecture plunged into the dismal depths of modernism, under Francisco Franco, the architect Luis Moya showed that there is indeed another way: architecture as a continuation of history rather than a rejection of history.
Norumbega Archives
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Around the Sphere
Was World War II just as pointless as Iraq? It makes me feel like a traitor to write this. The Second World War was my religion for most of my life. Brave, alone, bombed, defiant, we, the British, had won it on our own against the most evil and powerful enemy imaginable, writes Peter Hitchens at The Mail on Sunday.
Whatever happened to the good old working man?He got rubbed out of history as being no longer desirable or fashionable to the modern world. And who rubbed him out? His supposed best “comrade”, the Socialist Left - that’s who! So writes Tribunus at Roman Christendom.
Political mythsThe Republicans (and the Democrats) have made the great error of believing their own propaganda, as well as relying on stereotype in stead of reality, writes Daniel Larison at Eunomia.
Spend more on Speaker’s HouseNot enough money has been spent on the Speaker’s house at the Palace of Westminster, while whole wings and corridors of rooms have been done up like those of a five-star hotel: dead in feel and execrable in taste. So writes Christopher Howse at the Daily Telegraph.
Immigration: Worse than Powell predictedForty years on from his career-killing “Rivers of Blood” speech, it is obvious that Enoch Powell was both right and wrong, writes John Laughland in his “Controversies” column at the Brussels Journal.
How the EU conspires against the peopleA leaked diplomatic memo from Dublin to Whitehall shows just how governments are conspiring to rig the deck when Ireland votes on the new EU constitutional treaty, from the Brussels Journal.
Is the idea of constitutional monarchy heretical?The eighth-century teaching of Pope St. Zacharias gives us pause for thought, writes Aelianus at Ex Laodicea.
Bin Laden’s days are numberedThe conviction is growing in intelligence circles that Osama’s days are numbered, and many within the counterterrorism community are beginning to question some basic assumptions about al-Qaeda and how great a threat it continues to represent, writes Philip Giraldi at @TAC.
Two views of a subjectThe Vatican Observatory is getting a much-needed investment in terms of repairing buildings and expanding facilities. Fr. Tim Finigan is astonished at the way the media have managed to spin this one, over at The Hermeneutic of Continuity.
Catholics have abandoned the white working classA BBC survey suggests that white working-class people feel ignored by politicians . They are certainly ignored by the mainstream churches in this country – and especially by the Catholic Church, writes Damian Thompson at Holy Smoke.
Jefferson Davis, the Pope, and the Crown of ThornsWhen the former president of the Confederacy sat imprisoned after the Civil War, the Union treated him shamefully, denying him even basic privacy. One man, however, accorded him due respect: Blessed Pope Pius IX, writes Tribunus at Roman Christendom.
Rebel with a causeThe diaries of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, are published this month. Her publisher and editor, Robert Ellsberg, recalls her life, with its mix of traditional piety and radical politics in The Tablet.
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