Word: mattering
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Fundamentally, political relations between Europe and Iran are bad because their interests often clash, they do not trust each other and they run their domestic affairs very differently. Perceptions matter. Iran's rulers interpret sympathetic media reports of demonstrations as interference arising from hostility. Insistence that Iran should heed Security Council resolutions on its nuclear program reads as hypocrisy when there is no action on Israel's nukes. The Iranian leadership rejects what it calls double standards on violence: calling for peaceful solutions but waging war in Iraq. Iran's government (but not all its people) rejects cultural influences from...
...could be months. Given the West's skepticism about Iran's election results, fresh Iranian government resentments will now be on the table alongside old ones. Crucially, though, these grievances are unlikely to sink the talks before they get started. The issues are too important. Neither side, for that matter, has a better policy in mind. There is absolutely nothing to be gained now from writing off Obama's and Europe's policy as bound to fail...
...recent edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican produced a document that unequivocally confirmed automatic excommunication for anyone involved in an abortion - even in such a situation as dire as the Brazilian case. It settles any questions about the absolute nature of church doctrine on the matter of abortion - but it could potentially reignite the p.r. firestorm. (See the original story of the controversial abortion in Brazil...
While the doctrinal stance breaks no new ground, the question now, like in March, is a matter of emphasis. Why, months after the difficult issue had largely faded from view, did the Pope feel compelled to return to a case that could leave the church looking coldhearted? A senior Vatican official says the Pope was forced to back up the Brazilian bishop. "[Sobrinho] was furious," says the official. "There was the impression that the local bishop had been subjected to immediate scrutiny by the Holy...
...testimonies reveal the discomfort and trauma of soldiers' reliving their involvement in a complicated combat setting. And their matter-of-fact recounting of the minutiae of the combat experience, along with moments of palpable pride in having struck a Hamas rocket crew or conducting themselves appropriately in relation to Palestinian civilians, certainly lends an air of authenticity to the report...