In The News:

Pope Urges All Religions To Unite For Good

Pope Francis urged members of all religions and those belonging to no church today to unite to defend justice, peace and the environment and not allow the value of a person to be reduced to "what he produces and what he consumes".

Francis, elected a week ago as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, met leaders of non-Catholic Christian religions such as Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists, and others including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.

"The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of furthering respect of friendship between men and women of different religious traditions," the Argentine pontiff told the religious leaders in an audience at the Vatican.

Speaking in Italian in the frescoed Sala Clementina, he said members of all religions and even non-believers had to recognise their joint responsibility "to our world, to all of creation, which we have to love and protect.

"We must do much for the good of the poorest, the weak, and those who are suffering, to favour justice, promote reconciliation and build peace," he said.

While he said history had shown that any attempt to eliminate God had produced "much violence," he reached out to those who seek truth, goodness and beauty without belonging to any religion.

Europe, Russia Reject Latest Cyprus Bailout Plan Before It Is Even Voted By Parliament

FT reports, confirming our initial skepticism, "European officials rejected Cyprus’ plans for an alternative package to save its banking sector and remain in the euro, starting a fresh round of talks with the island nation’s government on Friday."

Elsewhere, pouring gas on the non-bailout fire, was Russia which Bloomberg reported has crushed all hopes it would swoop in as an alternative white knight, and bailout Cyprus. After all why would it: the worse the situation on the ground, already blamed on Merkel and the Troika, the greater its leverage, and the more power it has to acquire any and all Cypriot assets for free if and when Cyprus is "spun off" from Europe. From Bloomberg:

Russia spurned Cyprus’s offers of assets for a bailout as the island nation’s lawmakers debate legislation to avert a financial collapse.

“I think we are not able to get the support that we wanted to get,” Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris said in an interview after checking out of the Lotte Hotel in downtown Moscow. “But we must go back home because things are getting serious.”

Russia has ended talks with Cyprus and will decide on participating in restructuring debt after the so-called troika overseeing euro-area bailouts, makes its decision, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters today in Moscow. The troika comprises the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund.

Bottom line: Europe will not agree to any plan that does not promote "debt sustainability", i.e., impairment of Russian oligarch savings, which in turn is a non-started in Cyprus, and would lead to an immediate trade war with European energy supplier Russia.

That is, in a nutshell, the stalemate as we head into the weekend, and a Monday Cyprus bank holiday, during which the ECB has issued the supreme bluff, and said it would cut off all the funding to the small island.

It is certainly shaping up as a fun weekend.

Cyprus On The Brink Of Euro Exit After ECB Ultimatum

Cyprus is on the brink of bankruptcy and of becoming the first-ever country to leave the euro after the European Central Bank (ECB) issued an ultimatum on Thursday (21 March).

In its statement, the ECB warned that it would turn off the tap of emergency funding to Cyprus' banks on Monday if a rescue package is not agreed.

Removing Cyprus' emergency support could see the country's two largest banks, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki, collapse within days.

Carston Brezki, senior economist at ING, described the ECB's move as a "gun at the head of Cyprus."

The Cypriot parliament is also expected to vote on legislation to impose capital controls restricting the amount of money customers can take out of their bank accounts when, or if, they reopen next week.

Cypriot banks, which have been shut since the rescue plan was agreed by finance ministers in Brussels , are expected to remain closed until next Tuesday in a desperate bid to avoid a bank run with account holders panicking at the prospect of losing their savings.

Nigel Farage: 'Euro Is A House Of Cards Waiting To Topple'

What is really happening here is we are having a reconcilable split between the North and the South of Europe. In the North of Europe – Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland – there are very strong political voices saying “We do not want to go on bailing out southern European countries.” And bear in mind that Cyprus is now the fifth country out of 17 that has needed to be bailed out. And that is why the Germans extracted the terms that they did. But I must say that even in my direst predictions in this parliament over the years about the way the EU bosses were behaving, never did I think that they would in a completely unprecedented manner resort to stealing money from people’s bank accounts.

 It can’t afford Cyprus to fail, it can’t afford Greece, Portugal, Spain or Ireland to fail. They know that once one country goes the whole deck of cards will come tumbling down. And countries like Germany will realize absolutely vast losses – possibly as much as one trillion euro.

So, they are prepared now to do literally anything to try to keep the Euro afloat. And that is why they have now resorted to what can only be described as theft.

Now they’ve done it in one country, they are quite capable of doing it in Italy, Spain, Portugal, or anywhere else.

And the message that sends to people who have got savings in banks in those countries – certainly if I was them is “get your money out while you can.”  

Inside The Ring: Russian Bomber Flights

Two Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out a fourth high-profile training flight last week, flying near South Korea, where large-scale war games are under way, and near Japan and the U.S. military bases on Okinawa.

It was the fourth time since June 2012 that Russian bombers have run up against U.S. and allied air defense zones in the Pacific.

The latest Russian strategic bomber flights near Okinawa, where U.S. Marines are deployed, followed a Feb. 12 incursion around Guam, July 4 bomber flights near the California coast, and practice bomber sorties near Alaska in June.

The failure of the Pacific Command to discuss the incident appears to be part of a new Pentagon policy of refusing to answer reporters’ questions about troubling developments that might undermine theObama administration’s conciliatory policies toward both Russia andChina. For example, Friday’s flights took place just over a month after two other Tu-95s flew around the U.S. Pacific island of Guam — a major hub for the U.S. military buildup in the region.

Iran's Supreme Leader Threatens To Raze Tel Aviv, Haifa

 Iran’s supreme leader threatened to destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel dares to attack his country.

“Sometimes the leaders of the Zionist regime threaten us,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in speech broadcast live on TV Thursday — coinciding with President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel and discussion in Jerusalem of ways to thwart Iran’s nuclear program. “They should know, said Khamenei, “that if they are attack us, we will turn Tel Aviv and Haifa into wastelands.”

Soldiers Warning: Obama Urging 'Modern-Day Munich 1938'

In a short documentary released this week, William “Bill” Langfan, a World War II veteran and witness to the Nazi death camps, warns that U.S. President Barack Obama’s  pressuring Israel to retreat to 1948 Armistice lines is another version of the 1938 Munich appeasement of Adolf Hitler.

In the 15-minute-long film, Langfan, who participated in the 1944 Normandy landings and the Battle of the Bulge, remembers reading about the shameful sellout ofCzechoslovakia by Britain's Neville Chamberlain as a 16-year-old growing up in New York

By making it impossible for Czechoslovakia to defend itself and forcing it to relinquish the Sudetenland to Hitler, the West sealed Czechoslovakia’s fate: The Nazis conquered the country the following spring.

Langfan, who has spent decades studying Israel’s security situation, warns that Obama, aided by England France and the European Union, is pressuring Israel to weaken itself by ceding territory to a terrorist Palestinian Authority that remains virulently anti-Semitic and depicts Israelis in terms reminiscent of Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels.

Obama, Netanyahu Grant Iran Another Three Months' Grace