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Picasso, Rousseau paintings stolen in France

2012-03-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

Police say about 30 works of art, including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau, have been stolen from the home of a private collector in the southern French region of Provence.

The theft was carried out while the owner was on vacation abroad, and was discovered by a caretaker. A police official spoke on condition of …

Love of casinos pushed to limit

2012-03-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Americans have gambling fever but they don't like casinos intheir backyards.

More than $500 billion was wagered in the U.S. in 1995.Gambling profits are more than four times bigger than the combinedrevenues from movies or professional sports. Americans made 150million visits to casinos in 1995. Between 1990 and 1993, the numberof households visiting casinos went from 46 million to 92 million.

As part of the gambling boom, the population of Las Vegas hasmore than doubled to more than 1 million in the last decade. Morethan $8 billion in hotel/casino projects are planned or are underconstruction that will increase the city's hotel rooms to more than120,000.More …

NC police identify soldier shot dead outside hotel

2012-03-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina police continue looking for clues in the off-post shooting death of a Fort Bragg soldier from Illinois.

Fayetteville police they found Pfc. Chad Patrick Dellit lying between two cars near a hotel. He had been shot in the head. Fort Bragg said Friday that the 22-year-old Dellit was from Fulton, Ill., and enlisted in September 2008.

Police spokesmen did not return …

Scientists get another day to study Gulf spill cap

2012-03-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

Scientists got an extra day to evaluate whether the giant cork bottling BP's busted well in the Gulf of Mexico will hold, while officials overseeing the disaster pondered their next step.

After days of watching, engineers on Sunday still saw no signs of any leak in the well cap that has shut in the crude for three days. The oil giant and the government were becoming increasingly confident in the temporary stopgap.

"Everybody has been so worried about it blowing," said Willianet Barksdale, a security guard on the public beach at Gulf Shores, Ala. "Maybe this means it's holding and this is almost over."

But the pressure readings …

BREAKFAST BRIEFING // NATION WORLD

2012-03-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

WWF planning IPO STAMFORD, Conn. - For years, pro wrestling fanshave loved the body slams, pile drivers and outrageous stunts of theWorld Wrestling Federation. Now, the WWF is hoping its antics willattract investors. The Stamford-based company is planning to raise$172.5 million in an initial public offering, according to documentsfiled Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Theterms of the IPO have not yet been determined. CEO shown door atHumana LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Managed health care giant Humana Inc.,buffeted by declining earnings, underwent a shakeup in its top ranksTuesday with the abrupt resignation of Gregory H. Wolf as presidentand chief executive officer. …

Colonel Eugene Scott: From Billiken to the battlefields and back again

2012-03-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Fifty-three years later, the impression is still recalled.

As the celebration of Blackness/Black people progressed pass him on a Southside Chicago street, 12-year-old Eugene Scott watched in wonder.

"I was in awe. I was so overwhelmed," Scott said, when discussing the first time he attended a Bud Billiken Parade. "I had never seen a parade that large. Seeing that helped me understand what this parade is really about. I saw and felt it as a young kid.

Scott's childhood also featured the influence of Florence Sengstacke, sister of former Defender publisher John Sengstacke.

Florence Sengstacke, Scott said, taught him about accountability. One day, Scott asked her …

Benitez scrutinized about Liverpool's slide

2012-03-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

Liverpool's stretch of four straight draws has left the former Premier League leaders needing a win Sunday to overtake second-place Chelsea. Also in danger of tumbling out of the FA Cup, the team's recent slide has also led many to scrutinize the job manager Rafa Benitez is doing.

Despite the struggles and the criticism, however, Benitez has denied he's cracking under the pressure, instead saying there are things happening to his team that he can do nothing about.

Benitez came under scrutiny after a strongly worded prepared statement that Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson gets unfair treatment over disciplinary matters, his own rejection of a new …

Canadiens snap back, belt Nords

2012-03-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

Mike Lalor struck for two goals and Sergio Momesso scored thefirst playoff goal of his career 14 seconds into the game last nightto ignite Montreal to a 7-2 victory at Quebec, helping the Canadiensfight back into their Adams Division final.

Montreal, which lost the opening two games of the series athome, closed within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, with Game 4Sunday at the Colisee.

Momesso, in his second year with the Canadiens and playing inhis first game of the series against Quebec, took a corner pass fromBob Gainey and beat goalie Mario Gosselin with a 10-foot wrist shot.

Montreal opened to 2-0 when Guy Carbonneau passed from the sideof the Quebec …

Rockies Win 10th Straight

2012-03-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES - Josh Fogg allowed five hits over 6 2-3 innings against a lineup that included five September callups, leading the Colorado Rockies to their franchise-record 10th straight victory, 2-0 over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night.

Colorado remained tied with Philadelphia, one game behind San Diego in the wild-card race. The Rockies moved within two games of the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks with four games to play.

The Rockies, now a franchise-record 14 games over .500 (86-72), won nine in a row once before - from Aug. 26-Sept. 5, 1997.

Fogg (10-9) walked three and struck out five to record his first victory over the Dodgers since Aug. 6, …

Survey: Family time eroding as Internet use soars

2012-03-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Whether it's around the dinner table or just in front of the TV, U.S. families say they are spending less time together.

The decline in family time coincides with a rise in Internet use and the popularity of social networks, though a new study stopped just short of assigning blame.

The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California is reporting this week that 28 percent of Americans it interviewed last year said they have been spending less time with members of their households. That's nearly triple the 11 percent who said that in 2006.

These people did not report spending less time with their friends, …

Erickson Goes Back in Time // Twins Pitcher Regains '91 Form

2012-03-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

MINNEAPOLIS The way Scott Erickson was pitching, it couldn't havebeen April 27, 1994.

It had to be April 26, 1991, when Erickson beat the SeattleMariners for his first major league shutout. Or maybe May 1, 1991,when Erickson blanked the Boston Red Sox on a two-hitter.

Or May 28, 1991, when Erickson guaranteed a victory over theTexas Rangers and delivered a 3-0 beauty that put the Minnesota Twinsback into the pennant race. Or June 24, 1991, when Erickson'stwo-hitter against the New York Yankees gave him his 12th consecutivevictory.

Was Erickson really pitching a no-hitter and beating theMilwaukee Brewers 6-0 on Wednesday? Or had the Metrodome become …

AOL teaming up with Ellen DeGeneres online

2012-03-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) — AOL is adding talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres to its family of Web properties as it looks for ways to draw more people to its sites.

The company will begin sharing traffic, content and promotions with the website for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," starting Tuesday. AOL sites such as KitchenDaily.com and Popeater will promote DeGeneres and provide links to her site, and vice versa.

No money is changing hands. The company that produces the TV show, Telepictures Productions, will still have control over what appears on the show's site and will sell the ad …

Islamabad's Radical Red Mosque Reopens

2012-03-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Islamabad's militant Red Mosque reopened Wednesday with a defiant call for Islamic law from its incarcerated prayer leader, nearly three months after an army raid there left more than 100 people dead.

Commandos attacked in July after tension over an increasingly violent anti-vice campaign led by the mosque's administrators boiled over into gunbattles with police.

The fighting focused concern about the spread of radical Islam in Pakistan, a politically volatile country already on the front lines of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

A first attempt to reopen the extensively repaired mosque in late July ended when students seized the building and a suicide bomber killed 13 people nearby. But the government tried again Wednesday on the orders of the Supreme Court, despite concern that it will again become a rallying point for militants.

In comments broadcast Wednesday, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said authorities would clamp down if militants tried to retake control.

"There should be good things done there, there should be prayers there," Musharraf said on Geo television. "No one will be allowed to take it over."

After police cut barbed wire and removed metal barriers around the mosque, some 3,000 people responded to the noon call for prayer, filling the main hall and the repaved yard outside.

Students from an affiliated religious school frisked those entering and a man appealed to worshippers for calm via a loudspeaker. However, the sermons and the tearful reaction they evoked showed that their sympathies were with the radicals.

After a speech by a nephew of the imam, Maulana Abdul Aziz, several students shouted out in joy when a moderator announced a taped address from the imam.

Some chanted "What is our goal? Sharia or martyrdom!" and "Allah is the only superpower!" before orderlies hurried to ask them to be quiet.

Aziz was caught fleeing the mosque at the height of the siege, concealed beneath a woman's burqa. His brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, died in the fighting along with dozens of troops and suspected militants. Critics of the raid allege that hundreds of innocent students were also killed.

In his message, Aziz urged his followers to continue campaigning for the imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, in honor of fallen comrades.

"Their sacrifice lit the candle for sharia in the entire country," Aziz said. "We were peaceful, we are peaceful and we will remain peaceful, but our movement will continue."

The worshippers, some of whom wept openly during prayers, dispersed afterward. Several tried to cross barbed wire to reach the plot where the mosque's seminary for girls had stood until it was badly damaged during the raid and then demolished.

A handful of uniformed police watched from a distance.

Students supervising the reopening along with Aziz's wife said their main concern was restoring the sanctity of the mosque.

However, others called for officials, including Musharraf, to stand trial for the raid.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday also ordered authorities to rebuild the girls' seminary, whose students were prominent in a Taliban-style morality campaign that included the kidnapping of alleged prostitutes from a Chinese beauty spa and issuing a fatwa, or religious decree, condemning a government minister for hugging a French skydiving instructor.

Religious pluralism: Problems and prospects

2012-03-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

I. INTRODUCTION

I have spent much of the last thirty years mapping the religious life of the United States. This unique occupation began in graduate school with a dissertation problem-to discern the important structures in the American religious life. At the time (the 1960s) there was much talk of a post-denominational era, of ecumenism. The great ecumenical hope was fueled by mergers in the mission field. Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and even Anglican churches were joining together to create a new wave of "united Protestant" churches, gathering participation from churches in South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, and India. While most of these new united churches were Asian, one was close at hand-the United Church of Canada. Founded in 1925, this merger of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Methodists seemed to be working well after fifty years.

Two factors separated American churches from the possibility of such ecumenical unions. In almost every case where such a united church had been formed, the merging churches were a distinct minority. First, in the United States, Protestantism was the majority religious factor. Second, while the Canadians were experiencing a union, the United States had gone through an intense religious controversy that split its major churches into warring theological camps. Such a split continues to this day and goes under various names-fundamentalist/modernist, conservative/liberal, evangelical/ecumenical. The dynamic still fuels major religious controversies in the United States, as neither side has been able to claim a clear majority. Moreover, this major barrier to older groups coming together also led to a regular set of new groups being formed.

At the time I began mapping the religious landscape, the popular observation was that some 250 denominations existed in America. An initial survey of the scene in the 1960s produced a list of some 750 groups. By the mid 1970s, when we first published, around 1000 denominations, including a growing number of non-Christian groups, had become visible. In the process, we-and I use the plural because by this time other researchers on the same issues and phenomena had arisen-were able to identify and describe the continuing structures shaping contemporary religious life: denominations, or basic religious groupings that focus the week-to-week religious life of people and express their primary religious commitment; and family groups, sets of closely related denominations.

While at times it appears that there is simply chaos on the religious scene, such is not the case. There are only so many ways to be religious, and so many religious myths that spiritually animate people. Genuinely new religious myths are exceedingly rare, and almost all newer religious groups develop a variation on one of the fairly small number of old religious myths and adopt one of the even smaller number of ways to organize a religious community. We can see this clearly, for example, in Scientology. Often condemned as a shallow new religion with a science-fiction theology, when we actually analyze the theology, we see that founder L. Ron Hubbard made a forceful restatement of the old Gnostic myth. Understanding that relationship to be one of the oldest and most powerful traditional religious myths helps from a religious perspective to understand why people can find Scientology so appealing as a religious community (though the price is depriving Scientology of at least one of its claims to uniqueness).

However, no sooner had we solved the first problem, than a second rose to the top. It had been posed earlier by a few sociologists like H. Richard Neibuhr, but in the 1970s took on a new level of concern. As originally stated, the problem was something like this: Why are so many young people abandoning the older religious groups for newer ones? At that point, a spectrum of new religions was becoming visible in America. Of course, the new question was a restatement of the older ecumenical problem. The ecumenical imperative pushed us toward unity. The reality of the religious life was disunity, especially at the practical organizational level.

This focus on the "new religions" problem in America had been the result of a legal change. In 1965, the United States revamped its immigration laws. The law favoring immigration from Northern and Western Europe was replaced with one that put Eastern European, Asian and Middle Eastern countries on the same immigration quotas. Those quotas have been filled annually. They brought a new level of religious pluralism to America. Actually, both ethnic and religious diversity rose sharply through the 1970s and has continued on its upward course in succeeding decades. As a result, America was proving an excellent social laboratory for the study of religion. In America, real freedom, especially concerning religion, was a present reality. This freedom was reinforced by America's high degree of separation between church and state, a condition that prevented government from becoming the arbiter of individual religious choices.

With that background in mind, why were so many leaving the mainline churches (most of which have experienced some thirty years of decline) and so many seemingly joining the newer groups? The traditional answer, of course, was social unrest. Given that this question was asked during the 1960s, it was a logical answer. However, the 1960s were succeeded by the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s, and the number of new religions continued to rise and has yet to slow down.

Furthermore, when we gathered our figures, we saw that the trend had been active for at least 100 years. The steady growth toward religious diversity that was so apparent in the 1960s had been an active force in North America at least since the 1880s. It had persisted decade by decade indifferently through times of relative social unrest or relative calm, through times of peace and times of war, through times of economic prosperity and depression. And it shows no signs of slowing down, much less stopping.

Today, over half of all the 2000-plus primary religious groups operating in the United States were formed after 1960. And lest we think of this as a problem at the fringe, we note that of the six largest religious bodies in the United States, three of them were formed in that time period.

As we observed this rather fluid situation, someone suggested that we had the problem wrong, and after all, stating the problem correctly is halfway to solving it. We were asking establishment questions: Why are so many people deserting us? Why is there dissent? Why are leaders arising who oppose our leadership? That realization again sent us back to the drawing board and to a second look at the problem of religious culture.

II. CULTURAL CHANGES

The continual analysis of culture had shifted-from an understanding of culture as the static possession of a people to a view of culture as a process in which people are continually participating. Culture was, is, and is to be. Change is the norm of life. Living things either change or die. Culture is not static-it changes. That is why, for example, we can speak of the "history" of Western culture. Generation by generation we can document how our culture has changed. Our artistic styles have shifted, new economic structures have arisen, technology has improved, political revolutions have occurred. Our culture continually interacted with neighboring cultures. Cultures may move at a relatively slow pace, or they may move very quickly as they have in this century, but they always move.

So why is there a tendency to see religion as somehow exempt from these moves-as traditional, as conserving the past, as static, as unchanging? A large part of that view derives from the frequent equation of a religion with the identity of a particular people (the Romanian Orthodox Church with Romania) and a particular culture (Christianity with Western culture). We forget the way that present religious majorities displaced older majorities, or the way that a new secular religious-like perspective-Marxism, in its various denominational forms-worked to supplant (and in places succeeded in replacing) the traditional religious identities of many of the world's peoples.

We tend to forget that some of the very religious groups that today are so protective of their role as the essential religious identity of a people-German Lutherans, for example-were, over the last two centuries, through their well-funded missionary programs, also a significant force in attempting to alter the religious identity of peoples around the world. Religion, like the rest of culture, and like the rest of social life, is constantly changing. It changes or it dies. Let me illustrate.

First, in the case of majority religions, accepted religions assume the task of facilitating the growth of faith and religious sensibilities among the public in the next generation. In so doing, they nurture small group life and individual pieties. In the best case, the new generation recreates the previous one, but always does so with individual flair. It introduces small changes into the tradition that in turn will be passed on to yet another new generation.

As Christianity, for example, made its bid to replace the pre-- Christian Pagan religious cultures, it changed as it adapted to local conditions in various countries and communities. New liturgies appeared in new languages and new theologies followed the new liturgical and linguistic patterns, based on unique religious sensitivities in each area of the world. As it became a world-class religion, the periodic attempts to bring the whole church together to debate the emerging issues in theology and culture ceased. There was no organizational force that could hold such a large far-flung body together.

The Christian church wedded itself to the state. In the East it was somewhat dominated by the government (except in places where it was overwhelmed and pushed entirely into a minority status by the rise of Islam). In the West, Christianity rose to new heights of power as it filled the vacuum left by the fall of the Roman Empire. In the process, it developed a theology of divinely ordained orders (social structures serving vital functions). It also argued for its own hegemony by continuing the idea that the state needed religious uniformity as an essential element in its own stability. In order to ensure public order, the state had the right, even the duty, to enforce religious uniformity, to impose taxes to support the church, to demand citizen support, and to transform religious functionaries into employees of the state.

Even when Western society most closely embodied this idea, change could not be stopped. This is the era in which the crusaders brought Arab thinking from the Middle East and Thomas Aquinas used the writings of Arab Muslims to create a new theology that would soon replace all that went before it. It was also a period in which governments continually suppressed dissidents. Religious dissent appeared wherever space opened for it. Pre-Christian religions survived and were revived. New revelations appeared. New theologies attempted to shore up the inadequacies of older theologies. States vacillated between rulers who cared about religion and those who did not.

Everything began to unravel in the sixteenth century. Europe disintegrated religiously. The at-least-superficial uniformity of religion disappeared as Lutherans-Reformed and Anglican-vied for local control. Numerous minority religions appeared. Interestingly enough, the Reformation and resulting Counter-Reformation occurred just as the New World was discovered. And when we looked at the New World from the perspective of European religious leadership, we got a new perspective on the function it played. It became a giant trash can, the place to throw away religious garbage. Off to the colonies with all the religious losers-Pilgrims, Congregationalists, Dutch Mennonites, Portuguese Jews, German Rosicrucians, Baptists, Swiss Brethren, Quakers, and Methodists. Not just dissenting groups came, but troubled individuals: the dominant European churches sent to America all their problem personnel-the eccentrics, the criminals, those of questionable theology, those who had trouble with their bishop, and the incompetents.

To some extent, this trend has continued to the present. We cannot, for example, understand the rise of American Buddhism without taking into account-along with the political losers from the Dalai Lama on down-the number of problem priests and theological dissidents who chose to come to America.

Coincidental with America's founding-actually contributing to it-was the rise of secularism. Many of America's founders had imbibed deeply of French secularism. This secularism was not just irreligion, but an active philosophical option that suggested that religious worldviews were wrong and that worship was a time-wasting activity. Secularism offered to replace both with an equally pervasive cosmology and ethical system.

Such irreligion gave rise to two very different understandings of the separation of church and state. One is the dominant notion that the functions of religion and government should be parted. It is the idea that government should not meddle in the religious lives of people (as long as they are otherwise law-abiding) and religious institutions should refrain from partisan politics. In this understanding, religion is seen as assisting the state indirectly by providing moral training for citizens and increasing the level of virtue in the society as a whole. The state maintains a secular order that allows religion to flourish on its own terms. It is assumed that most citizens will be religious, but that they will keep their religious squabbles out of the public sphere as much as possible.

In the second understanding, one that is aligned to many atheist perspectives, the separation is seen as much more radical. The state and religion actually form two mutually exclusive spheres. To participate in one is to refrain from participating in the other, especially at a leadership level. The state is actually hostile to religion and sees religions as offering nothing to the general welfare. Religion is at best entertainment for the mystically inclined. It is tolerated as long as it does not affect anything important. Such a view dominates in present-day China and has asserted itself powerfully in present-day France. This second understanding is actually a way of instituting a form of secularism as the "religious" perspective of the nation. It usually does not work in a free society, and must be imposed by the coercive power of the state like any other form of "religious" uniformity. For those of us who argue for separation of the first kind, it is important that we distinguish it from that of the second kind.

III. PRESENT CHANGE FACTORS

The existence of the New World was an important factor (to name just one) that contributed to a dramatic alteration of post-- sixteenth century Anglo religious culture. The rise of secularism has altered it since the eighteenth century. Today, new forces have been added that appear to be motivating the same kind of pervasive change. Of these, one force stands out-one so massive that, while we can alter its course, it appears that we could do little to stop it even if we wanted to. The latest name we have given that force is globalization. This economic term originally described the pervasive effects of the internationalization of trade and technologies and the way that economic factors were making national political boundaries less important in defining economic 'units. However, we have come to see the concept in cultural and historical terms as well.

Let us play with this idea for a moment, along with one of the other great facts of modern life-the speed of change. The culture is moving so fast that those who try to live in the past will be swept aside. In the midst of this fast-paced global situation, certain new ideas have come to the fore. For example, we now assume that religious liberty is a virtue. One sign of this consensus is that some acknowledgement of religious liberty has been written into almost all the constitutions of the world. At the same time, we have also come to assume the dignity and worth of the individual. While too often found in the breach rather than the observance, the idea of the dignity and worth of the individual has informed all of our international deliberations since World War II. It provides the foundation for our belief in different freedoms. In coming together to create documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Accords, powerful ideas have been unleashed upon the world, ideas from which it would now be very difficult to retreat.

Of equal importance, not only have we freed these new ideas upon the world, but we have raised them up and ascribed to them a global imperative above and beyond the beliefs of local cultures. A recent example of our presenting such an imperative occurred in 1993. At a gathering of religious leaders in Chicago-Roman Catholic cardinals, the Dalai Lama, some Nco-Pagan priests, Zen Buddhist monks, Protestant Christian pastors, and Hindu swamis-the group promulgated what they audaciously called a "global" ethic, an ethical statement that they felt summarized a moral consensus that existed in spite of their very different theological perspectives and national allegiances of those who signed it.

The fact that we can launch ideas upon the whole world simultaneously indicates something of the new situation we face. We now live in an international neighborhood. This means that governments, even as they lift up national identities, will find it increasingly difficult to hide behind arguments of non-interference in internal matters while operating in ways deemed immoral by the international community. Just as the United States has the world looking at it when government agents storm a small religious community in Waco, Texas, so China can expect the world to look at the arrests and deaths of Falun Gong and Christian leaders that occurred for no other reason than to punish those individuals for following their faith. (If I may digress, this underscores the important role of human rights activists. It is our task to continually remind the world of the standards to which humanity now expects nations to adhere.)

Returning to globalization, one symptom of the globalization process since World War II is the development of a pluralistic worldwide culture that is spreading through the new international transportation and communications networks. While nations have focused upon the establishment of political boundaries, we have allowed economic needs to impose upon the world a spider-like web of technology that pays little more than lip service to such boundaries. This web is defined by airport terminals, Internet servers, television satellites, and telephone lines, among others.

For our purposes, the major effect of the new global technology is to destroy national boundaries as containers of cultures. We can separate church and state as a political act. We cannot separate religion from the other elements of culture. Culture, including religion, now flows back and forth along the spider web-like lines of communication and transportation as freely as rock music albums and blue jeans. And the modern global culture is quite subversive of local tradition.

Take France as an example: France exists as an important European country, but the business world now looks to French-speaking Europe as the market entity, and quickly includes French-speaking Africa. And then there is France-in-diaspora worldwide, from Martinique to French Polynesia. In turn, France must now deal with the influx of France-in-diaspora into Europe. Between 800 and 1000 different religious groups operate in the once-Catholic land.

In this emerging global community the key issue is the status of minority religions. I suggest that the fate of minority religions in a country is as good an indicator as we have of the general state of civil liberties in the country as ct whole. In the manner in which a government treats adherents to minority faiths, one can find a close measure of how it treats individuals and how it respects their choices.

The focus on minority faiths is also important, because as freedoms in general expand, religious pluralism will grow. It is irrational to believe that people who are making a variety of free choices in their secular life will not also make a variety of free choices in their religious life. The processes of religious differentiation that are already present in any given country are now being accelerated in every country by the spread of all religions globally. The process of change in any given location will be accelerated by the influx of material through the global network. Such material can include the diffusion of believers to new settings, the impact of television images, and the arrival of Internet communication.

IV. THE TASK BEFORE US

This analysis presents those of us who are part of the ruling elite (official and unofficial) with both problems and prospects. First, we will be presented with some false problems. For example, some will confuse the continued change within the culture with cultural disintegration. All of us carry romantic images of "the way things used to be," and all of us are attached to cultural elements that lose their hold on the public and fade from center stage. We are also upset with the fads and fallacies of youth culture. In times of rapid change, it is often easy to confuse the continued development of a culture (including the many false experiments) with its disintegration.

With regard to religion, our missing the process of cultural development has led into a variety of misperceptions. For example, one idea popular a generation ago-and now discarded-was the prophecy that the adoption of a minority religion by a segment of young people would lead them, to abandon the culture of their land as adults, to become unproductive citizens, and to shirk their responsibilities. Having now observed several generations of new religious phenomena, we have seen that members of minority religions readily integrate quite smoothly into the culture if allowed to do so and that followers of those minority religions, as a whole, participate fully in the society.

Laying aside such false problems, there are some very real problems with the emerging pluralism, not the least of which being the level of violence that has continued. Such violence has come as older religious communities expand out of traditional boundaries that once held them, and as new religious impulses arise in a formerly stable religious setting. This turmoil has varied from the open warfare in Sri Lanka between Buddhists and Hindus to the harsh suppression of religious minorities in the Sudan. It can be seen in the attempts of one religious group to impose its belief on others in Nigeria, in the murder of innocent people on a subway in Tokyo by the AUM Shrinrikyo, or in the suicide of members of the Solar Temple in Switzerland and Canada.

In the past, we have generally tried to prevent the violence that occasionally accompanies the rise of new religious communities by forcing a return to an old consensus. In the West, that is the history of the Inquisition, of Luther's attempt to suppress the peasants, and of the British laws imposing uniformity on a hopelessly divided populace. That approach no longer seems a viable option. We have found the attempt to keep down religious innovation as causing more pain and suffering than allowing religion to grow and flourish in its many ways. We also live in a day in which human society is being forced to change, not only because of new discoveries in science and technology, but because of the demands of women, of labor, and of minorities (ethnic, racial, linguistic, tribal, etc.) who will no longer live as second-class citizens. Just as our societies have adjusted to the changes wrought by the entrance of formerly disenfranchised segments of the populations in our several countries-though not without some pain-so we will be able to accommodate the differing religious perspectives of those same people. Through time, old structures crumble, but the culture adjusts. What was new yesterday is commonplace today.

Nevertheless, as the battles rage over new options-some of which will be adopted and continued, others which will be discarded and forgotten-it is imperative that we find a way to assist people in living with the clash of opinions. It is even more important that we find a way to assist people to live civilly with neighbors who choose a different set of options. Here we have much to learn from some very diverse cultures, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, which have made real progress in these matters.

While the coming of religious pluralism has its problems, it also has its prospects-far beyond its obvious value in offering people the opportunity to choose freely the way they exercise their spirituality and with whom they associate in religious community. First, religious pluralism appears to greatly increase total religious participation. Such increased participation should yield a heightened level of morality in society. If the effort to produce a "Global Ethic" document demonstrates nothing else, it manifests the moral consensus that flows through the majority of the religious communities both great and small, new and old. That consensus is desperately needed by our world. While there are important differences on a few questions at any given moment, religious people have an amazing agreement on the basics of moral existence. Religious diversity-rather than leading to moral chaos-should give new underpinnings for ethical structures. I would also suggest that a heightened level of morality will lead to a greater public support for righteous government as well as higher public participation in that government.

For the world as a whole, religion is still our best source for curbing the evils of the fast-paced culture in which we now live. It is the best tool we have for assisting people to cope with the human condition, and for motivating people to support efforts to build a better world globally. Religion now comes in many shades and colors. We should seize the opportunities that the new religious situation affords and make them work for the good of all in the next generation.

[Author Affiliation]

Dr. J. Gordon Melton*

[Author Affiliation]

* Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion.

Morrison Claim Over Store Bid

2012-03-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

Supermarket group owner Sir Ken Morrison has spoken out aboutSainsbury's plans to bid for Safeway, already the subject of anoffer from his own chain, Morrisons.

He said that if Sainsbury's went ahead with its proposed GBP3.2billion bid for Safeway, unveiled yesterday, it would lead to lessconsumer choice.

Morrisons last week bid GBP2.9 billion for the company.

Sir Ken Morrison said: "A combination of Morrisons and Safewaywould create a strong fourth national food retailer which wouldstrengthen competition and be in the best interests of consumers andsuppliers.

"Any combination that reduces the national players from four tothree would lead to less choice and the risk of higher prices.

Sainsbury's is yet to make an offer for Safeway. Our offer is theonly one on the table and is recommended by Safeway." Safeway said itnoted Sainsbury's announcement.

Chief executive Peter Davis told a press conference thatSainsbury's had been in talks with Safeway's board for three months.

"Have no doubt, we would like to buy Safeway, " he said.

Finding high-end eats at LA's mobile food courts

2012-03-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

All those years he was a chef at some of Los Angeles' priciest restaurants, going head-to-head with rival cooks for that coveted Zagat rating, Dave Danhi was harboring another ambition on the side.

He would put his gourmet grilled cheese sandwich in a truck and go hood-to-hood with fusion taco vendors, crepe wagons, wienermobiles and all other kind of meals-on-wheels bistros. He'd park right next to them and do battle, not for Michelin stars, but for glowing Twitter tweets and Yelp reviews.

So there was the former chef of the Water Grill, a restaurant rated by the Zagat Guide as having the best seafood in Southern California, standing behind the counter of his bright yellow Grilled Cheese Truck on a recent sunny afternoon. To one side of him was The Greasy Wiener Truck offering hand-twisted, New Jersey-style fried hot dogs. Across the way was the Crepe 'N Around, its kitchen filled with delicacies like chicken pesto crepes prepared by French-trained chef Eileen DeLeoz.

Welcome to the newest trend in eating, where you have to be fast to get to your local food court before the restaurants drive away. But if you are quick enough, you can pick from a variety of increasingly exotic choices, including Danhi's masterpiece, the cheesy mac and rib, made up of macaroni, sharp cheddar, caramelized onions and a boneless pork rib slapped between two pieces of grilled bread.

Even better, a complete meal at most any such food truck court will set you back no more than $5 to $10.

"This is definitely not a fad, it is the evolving of the restaurant industry," says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association, which for the first time is featuring an exhibit on food trucks at its annual trade show in Chicago this month.

There is an increasing demand, particularly among people 18 to 44, for freshly prepared, restaurant-quality food that can be had quick and cheap, said Riehle.

That was in evidence on a recent sunny day at a makeshift food court that assembles every week near Los Angeles International Airport. There, a half-dozen trucks were clustered in a small parking lot sandwiched between a high-rise office building and a hotel. As a steel drummer played in the background, the two buildings spilled out hungry workers by the hundreds, each of them contemplating what to have for lunch.

"We could see what we wanted when we looked out the window of our office building," laughed Sandy Castro, who was lined up at the Eat Pharmish Vietnamese food truck.

Ruben Flores had decided to partake of some fusion-style Mexican-Chinese kung pao chicken tacos from the Don Chow taco truck.

"It's way more adventurous and more cultured than a corporation or a fast-food place like McDonald's," he said. "I feel like the people behind making the food really love to do what they're doing and it's really an art form what they're doing."

The food truck, of course, has had a long if not always proud history. It began life as a noontime fixture at construction sites, where it would herald its arrival by blasting out the melody to "La Cucaracha," a signal that the roach coach had arrived with its inventory of undrinkable coffee, stale pastries and mystery-meat sandwiches.

The trucks found in today's mobile food courts are a far cry from that.

Such gathering places are marked by anywhere from a half-dozen to as many as two dozen rolling food kitchens that congregate for lunch or dinner, then drive away once everyone is full. They first made their appearance in downtown Portland, Ore., several years ago, says Brett Burmeister, managing editor of foodcourtsportland.com.

"It began as basically an alternative to the delis in the basements of the corporate buildings downtown," which he said seemed to specialize in selling bad baloney sandwiches.

Instead, the food trucks offered everything from Thai to Chinese to African and Bosnian food.

"The stuff you'd find at the nice restaurants, that you would spend $25 for, you could get for $5," Burmeister said.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles high-end taco trucks were clustering up and down busy streets, forming impromptu food courts of their own and encouraging people to follow them on Twitter to learn where they would be.

After fighting parking tickets and going to court to overturn an ordinance that would have forced some of them to move every hour, scores of L.A. truckers joined forces earlier this year to form the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association. They began to approach managers of high-rise office buildings and sponsors of public events to ask that their trucks be allowed to gather in adjacent parking lots.

It's a trend, Riehle said, that he expects will keep spreading, particularly in cities like New York, Seattle and San Francisco, which already have many fine food trucks of their own.

Although clustering in food courts puts them in direct competition with one another, vendors say the increased foot traffic and the advantage of having customers know where they are on a particular day makes it worthwhile.

If the lines get too long at one truck, said Jamie Radzik, who operates Crepe 'N Around with his wife, DeLeoz, he'll see people wander over to a different one and try the food there. He figures that's helping build brand awareness for everybody.

Meanwhile, the truckers themselves aren't shy about sampling the competition.

"That's half the fun," said Danhi's partner, chef Michele Grant, as she carried a sack from The Greasy Wiener to The Grilled Cheese Truck.

Japan company developing sensors for seniors

2012-03-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's top telecoms company is developing a simple wristwatch-like device to monitor the well-being of the elderly, part of a growing effort to improve care of the old in a nation whose population is aging faster than anywhere else.

The device, worn like a watch, has a built-in camera, microphone and accelerometer, which measure the pace and direction of hand movements to discern what wearers are doing — from brushing their teeth to vacuuming or making coffee.

In a demonstration at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s research facility, the test subject's movements were collected as data that popped up as lines on a graph — with each kind of activity showing up as different patterns of lines. Using this technology, what an elderly person is doing during each hour of the day can be shown on a chart.

The prototype was connected to a personal computer for the demonstration, but researchers said such data could also be relayed by wireless or stored in a memory card to be looked at later.

Plans for commercial use are still undecided. But similar sensors are being tested around the world as tools for elderly care.

In the U.S., the Institute on Aging at the University of Virginia has been carrying out studies in practical applications of what it calls "body area sensor networks" to promote senior independent living.

What's important is that wearable sensors be easy to use, unobtrusive, ergonomic and even stylish, according to the institute, based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Costs, safety and privacy issues are also key.

Despite the potential for such technology in Japan, a nation filled with electronics and technology companies, NTT President Satoshi Miura said Japan is likely falling behind global rivals in promoting practical uses.

Worries are growing the Japanese government has not been as generous with funding and other support to allow the technology to grow into a real business, despite the fact that Japan is among the world's most advanced in the proliferation of broadband.

More than 90 percent of Japan's households are equipped with either optic fibers or fast-speed mobile connections.

"But how to use the technology is the other side of the story," Miura said in a presentation. "We will do our best in the private sector, but I hope the government will help."

Nintendo Co.'s Wii game-console remote-controller is one exception of such sensors becoming a huge business success. But that's video-game entertainment, not social welfare.

George Demiris, associate professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, says technology for the elderly is complex, requiring more than just coming up with sophisticated technology.

Getting too much data, for instance, could simply burden already overworked health care professionals, and overly relying on technology could even make the elderly miserable, reducing opportunities for them to interact with real people, he said.

"Having more data alone does not mean we will have better care for older adults," Demiris said in an e-mail.

"We can have the most sophisticated technology in place, but if the response at the other end is not designed to address what the data show in a timely and efficient way, the technology itself is not useful," he said.

Foreign makers supply 1.3 million U.S. jobs, OSAT study says

2012-03-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Foreign automakers their U.S. plants, supply chains and dealer networks, have a much greater impact on the U.S. economy than generally has been surmised, according to a recently-announced study conducted by the University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation (OSAT).

Titled "The Contribution of the International Auto Sector to the U.S. Economy," the study reports that nearly 1.3 million American jobs can be linked to the so called U.S.-International Auto Sector (USAIS) - the Japanese and German automakers that build and sell vehicles in the U.S., plus other European and Asian makers that purely sell them That means every job at a USAIS automaking facility, and in the company's U.S. dealer body, creates another two American "spin-of"jobs.

The six-month study, which focused only on jobs in the U.S. and not Canada or Mexico, was sponsored by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), a lobbying group based in Arlington Va. The study's data was from 1996.

About 69,000 Americans are directly employed in manufacturing at USA'S plants, another 334,000 work in dealerships, and about 870,OOO,jobs at suppliers, service businesses, and those "induced" by the USAIS. In the manufacturing sector alone, each USAIS job generates 5.5 jobs (about 381,000), the study claims.

Andrew Card, president of the American Automobile Manufacturers' Assoc. (AAMA), a lobbying group for the U.S. Big Three, calls the OSAT data "extremely generous." Is a USAIS manufacturing job equal to one at the U.S. Big Three? "I don't think there's a dramatic difference to the economy," OSAT head Dave Cole tells AI "But it's about more than compensation and jobs. The USAIS created a new model in many ways, including education of workers, use of technology and processes, and even charitable contributions to communities."

Cole says that underlying the study is the fact that the economic impact of the entire auto industry has been under Adds Cole: The domestics still have three times the market presence here."

-Lindsay Brooke

Ex-Botswana pres. wins $5 million leadership prize

2012-03-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

The former president of Botswana won more than US$5 million Monday for his leadership skills, honored for steering the southern African nation through a decade of economic stability and presiding over health care reforms that aggressively tackled the spread of AIDS.

Festus Gontebanye Mogae, who led diamond-rich Botswana from 1998 until this year, won the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The prize, in its second year, aims to recognize and promote good governance in Africa.

The foundation that awards the prize was created by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born billionaire who founded the African telecommunications company Celtel International.

Mogae will receive US$5 million over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter. The foundation will also consider granting a further $200,000 annually for 10 years to causes that Mogae supports.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the prize committee, praised Mogae for his leadership on health and economic issues.

"Botswana demonstrates how a country with natural resources can promote sustainable development with good governance, in a continent where too often mineral wealth has become a curse," Annan said.

An Oxford-educated economist, Mogae privatized parts of the country's economy, notably the airlines and telecommunications industry, as he presided over a decade of stability and economic growth.

Since Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds, Mogae worked to ensure that his country benefited from its mineral wealth _ venturing into cutting and polishing diamonds instead of just exporting uncut stones and allowing foreigners to earn most of the profit.

Mogae has also received widespread praise for tackling Botswana's high HIV/AIDS infection rates. While the disease still carries a stigma elsewhere in Africa, Mogae has taken an AIDS test publicly and addressed the issue in almost every one of his speeches.

Today, lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs are known locally as "Mogae's tablets" and the number of children being infected with HIV by their mothers has dropped from as high as about 40 percent to only 4 percent. Anti-AIDS drugs are also reaching most of those who need it.

Earlier this year, Mogae stepped down even before the end of his second term _ the last he is allowed under the constitution. That allowed his vice president, Seretse Ian Khama, son of Botswana first's president Sir Seretse Khama, to run as an incumbent in elections next year.

The smooth transition was notable on a continent where too many leaders use force and fraud to hang onto power for decades. Still, some democracy activists and opposition members in Botswana criticized the move, likening it to automatic succession.

The Ibrahim prize is given to democratically elected former heads of state from sub-Saharan African countries who have left office within the last three years.

Mozambique's former president, Joaquim Chissano, won the prize last year. He ruled Mozambique for 18 years, leading that country out of a devastating civil war.

___

On the Net:

Mo Ibrahim Foundation:

http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org/

Here they come to save the day ....

2012-03-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

The Weinstein Co. may be nowhere near the gold standard set by Pixar in the imagination and technical ability of its animation, but it beats all 10 of the champion's justifiably lauded classics in one category. Pixar has yet to produce a single film with a female hero, while "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil," has two: both brave, strong, compassionate, loyal, smart and independent.

As the film's director Mike Disa recently noted, female characters in animation — the human ones, anyway — are nearly always focused on love and family. "How many animated films have you seen where the female lead is little more than a cliche object for the hero to impress in the last reel? Face it, if you want to be a strong female character in animation you are better off as a mouse." He was determined to make a movie for girls and boys with female characters whose idea of happily ever after did not necessarily mean the perfect date.

The first "Hoodwinked" movie was a fresh and funny take on the tale of Red Riding Hood, with appealing characters and a clever script to make up for animation that tended to be static and pedestrian. We entered the story at the climax, with the woodsman breaking into Granny's house just as Red realized it was a wolf wearing Granny's nightie. As each of the characters explained what happened to a patient cop who happens to be a frog, we learned that everything we thought we knew about the story was wrong and any assumptions we had about the intentions and capabilities of the characters was entertainingly turned inside out and upside down.

As the sequel begins, Red (Hayden Panettierre, replacing Anne Hathaway) has taken a leave of absence from working with the Wolf (Patrick Warburton) at a super high-tech law enforcement operation called HEA (for Happily Ever After). She is studying with the Sisters of the Hood, a training camp high in the mountains with a combined program of martial arts and cooking.

Surveillance experts Bo Peep and her sheep, stationed at the control center's bank of monitors, report that two children have been seen in the vicinity of a house made out of candy.

Wolf tries his best, but this time huffing and puffing won't blow the door in. To rescue little Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler) and Red's Granny (Glenn Close) from a masked wicked witch named Verushka (Joan Cusack), he needs some help.

Red has yet to learn the Sister Hood's most carefully guarded secret, the missing ingredient in the magic truffle recipe. She still makes the mistake of getting distracted from her task by impetuous pride and impatient insistence on doing things herself. But those lessons will have to wait — or be learned on the job — as she races to the rescue.

Red and Wolf get the help of old friends: the frog cop (who mutters "mammals!" when things get out of hand); Twitchy, the over-caffeinated squirrel (voice of co-screenwriter Cory Edwards); a banjo-playing goat; the yodeling huntsman (voice of Martin Short), and even an old enemy — Boingo, now confined, Hannibal Lecter-style, in prison.

Welcome new additions include Wayne Newton as a singing harp, Cheech and Chong as two of the three pigs, and David Alan Grier as Moss the Troll, who tries to keep Red from crossing his bridge.

The jokes come very fast, with a whirlwind of pop culture references from "Happy Days" to the Food Network, "Goodfellas," blogging and the Disney classic "Mickey and the Beanstalk." There are some nice 3-D swoops and drops, but the more vertiginous entertainment of the film is in the script, as once again what we think we know about fairy-tale heroines, villains, mean girls, old ladies, witches and happy endings are deliciously turned upside down and inside out.

Nell Minow is the film critic for the website beliefnet.com.

Red (as in Riding Hood) must save her Granny, along with Hansel and Gretel, from the clutches of a wicked witch in the animated "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil."

Fact Box: 'Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil' ★★★With the voices of:Red Hayden PanettierreWolf Patrick WarburtonGranny Glenn CloseHansel Bill HaderGretel Amy PoehlerVerushka Joan CusackThe Weinstein Co. presents an animated film directed by Mike Disa. Written by Disa, Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards and Tony Leech. Running time: 85 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for some mild rude humor, language and action). Opening today at local theaters.

Deutsche Telekom CFO Eick to resign

2012-03-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

Deutsche Telekom AG's Chief Financial Officer Karl Gerhard Eick will resign with effect from the end of February 2009, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The company only said Eick would move to work for another company, although his term as CFO was not to expire until 2012. The statement did not name a successor.

Eick joined Deutsche Telekom in November 1999. He has been chief financial officer of the company since the start of 2000 and deputy chairman of the board of management since 2004, the statement said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.telekom.com

Central American leaders denounce new EU immigration rules

2012-03-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

Leaders from Central America and the Dominican Republic have denounced new European Union rules for expelling illegal immigrants, joining a rising chorus of Latin American countries to oppose the regulations.

Gathered for a regional summit in El Salvador, presidents said they were "profoundly concerned" that the rules could jeopardize human rights.

The European Parliament approved legislation this month allowing illegal immigrants to be detained for up to 18 months to decrease flight risk during deportation procedures. A re-entry ban of up to five years may also be imposed on expelled immigrants who do not cooperate with officials or are deemed a threat.

"The defense of human rights of emigrants, legal or illegal, should be fundamental," Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said. "The European Union has taken a symbolic step back in this sense."

The new guidelines grant detained migrants basic rights, including access to free legal advice. They must be placed in specialized detention centers, not prisons, away from convicted criminals.

About 8 million illegal immigrants live in the 27-nation European Union. Most come from North Africa, former Soviet countries and the Balkans.

The vast majority of Central American and Caribbean migrants seek to escape poverty in the United States.

Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru have also objected to the EU's new rules.

eLoyalty extends toolkit

2012-03-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

eLoyalty has announced the integration of its core software toolkit with Internet customer service applications to give companies more visibility into customer interactions. The toolkit, when combined with eLoyalty's consulting services, can help companies deliver improved customer service across key customer interaction points. Using the toolkit for enterprise customer management, companies can link their Web channel with other customer management channels such as contact centers and interactive voice response (IVR) applications to help provide a more consistent customer experience. The toolkit, which is used in conjunction with the company's consulting engagements, was designed to reduce the time, risk and cost associated with developing and supporting customer management applications.

No. 508, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

Portugal risks political chaos amid austerity feud

2012-03-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal's political and financial crisis deepened Thursday, when the main opposition party said it won't support the minority government's latest measures aimed at avoiding a bailout for the debt-laden country.

The decision could force the beleaguered government's downfall, triggering fresh market jitters just as Europe readies new measures to contain the continent's sovereign debt crisis.

Many analysts anticipate Portugal's high debt load and feeble growth will compel it to ask for financial assistance like Greece and Ireland last year. The government has ruled out asking for help, insisting its tax hikes, pay cuts and reductions in welfare benefits and other state spending will be enough to restore faith in the economy.

Pedro Passos Coelho, leader of the center-right Social Democratic Party, said Thursday he cannot endorse the center-left Socialist government's latest austerity plan — the fourth set of measures in 11 months. Other opposition parties also disagree with the steps.

The Social Democrats "don't feel they can give their blessing to these measures," Passos Coelho said in a brief statement to reporters.

He said the measures are "grievous and extremely unfair" for the weakest members of society and his party's opposition is "unshakable" because the government's strategy has failed.

"It's unacceptable that after a year the country is on the verge of bankruptcy," he said.

The Social Democrats, who agree debt levels must be lowered but disagree on how to achieve that goal, consented to previous austerity measures.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates said earlier this week he would quit if Parliament doesn't approve his government's latest austerity plan which was announced last week and helped clinch European support for Portugal's debt-reduction strategy.

The government held out an olive branch to opposition parties, saying it was ready to negotiate alterations to the plan.

"The plan isn't unchangeable," Socialist parliamentary leader Francisco Assis said. "I'm sure we can reach an understanding."

No date has yet been set for parliamentary vote on the plan, though Socrates has said he doesn't want to go to a March 24-25 EU summit without the plan approved.

That summit is expected to ratify a strategy hammered out last weekend, when European leaders agreed to increase the size of the bloc's bailout reserve and allow it to purchase government debt, hopefully offsetting market fears about the euro countries' fiscal soundness.

But Portugal's latest woes could generate a fresh wave of uncertainty and help spread contagion to other debt-heavy countries such as Spain, Italy and Belgium.

The fall of the government and consequent early elections would consign Portugal to at least two months of potentially ruinous political paralysis. Under the Constitution, a ballot can be held only 60 days after it is called.

The political row is the latest setback for the government's efforts to restore market confidence amid a wave of strikes protesting its austerity program.

Moody's downgraded Portugal's credit rating Tuesday, saying the debt-stressed country is struggling to generate growth and faces a tough battle to restore fiscal health. The Bank of Portugal expects the country to go into a double-dip recession this year.

Investors are already charging Portugal unsustainably high interest rates for loans amid fears it may not be able to settle its debts. The yield on Portugal's 10-year bond remained near 7.5 percent on Thursday, not far from euro-era highs, indicating continued jitters.

Portugal has bond repayments amounting to almost €9.5 billion ($13.25 billion) falling due in April and June. It has had no trouble raising money on markets so far, but needs to lower steep borrowing costs that are pushing it into a downward spiral.

Space shuttle Atlantis on last leg of last mission

2012-03-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Atlantis' homeward-bound astronauts paid tribute Tuesday to their space shuttle, close to winding up its final journey after a quarter-century of flight.

Commander Kenneth Ham noted that Atlantis has spent nearly 300 days in orbit over 32 missions, and traveled 120 million miles. He and his crew took along a small U.S. flag that flew on Atlantis' first flight.

"Atlantis is just a fabulous ship," said Ham's co-pilot, Dominic "Tony" Antonelli. "If this ends up being space shuttle Atlantis' last flight, we've got an American flag here that we're honored to fly," he said, holding it up and explaining that it flew on Atlantis back in 1985.

This is the last flight on the books for Atlantis. Only two missions remain as NASA's shuttle program winds down, unless the Obama administration agrees to add one more trip for Atlantis.

Touchdown is scheduled for 8:48 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Mission Control warned the crew that rain could interfere, but noted: "We think we've got a pretty good fighting chance." Atlantis has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Saturday.

Mission managers said the results of Monday's survey of Atlantis looked good and cleared the shuttle for re-entry.

With just 26 hours officially remaining in their mission, the six astronauts beamed down a video they recorded over the previous few days aboard Atlantis as well as the International Space Station.

"I hope that when she lands successfully _ which I'm relying on these guys up front to do _ that she'll go somewhere and get the respect she deserves as a ship of exploration," said astronaut Piers Sellers, nodding to the pilots on board. He's flown on Atlantis twice.

The astronauts spent Tuesday getting Atlantis ready to come home after 12 days circling the Earth, and checking the critical flight systems. They're returning from the space station, where they delivered and installed a new Russian compartment, an extra antenna and 12 fresh batteries.

In an interview with the crew, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert asked if they were double-A batteries. Astronaut Michael Good pointed out they were nickel-hydrogen batteries weighing nearly 400 pounds apiece and that he and his fellow spacewalkers had to work out at the gym in advance.

"But why would you have to work out? I thought nothing weighs anything in space," Colbert said.

"Oh no, you figured it out," replied astronaut Garrett Reisman.

"Busted!" Colbert shouted. "The whole thing's a fraud. No wonder they're canceling the program. It's all been a sham the entire time."

Given that it's the third-to-last shuttle mission, the TV comedian asked, "You guys putting your resumes together?"

Antonelli replied that he's been collecting all the school calendars from the local community college back home in Houston and checking on the schedule for the truck-driving class.

As for Atlantis' future, the shuttle will be prepped for a potential rescue mission for the very last shuttle flight, to be conducted by Endeavour no earlier than November.

Assuming no emergencies arise, NASA would like to fly Atlantis anyway, in June 2011. Space agency officials said they need to know from the White House by June or July whether that's going to be possible. That's how much lead time would be needed to train a crew and flight control team, and prepare the payloads.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html