Peres, Abbas to pray for peace at Vatican on June 8

Yahoo – AFP, 29 May 2014

Israeli President Shimon Peres (L) greets Pope Francis during a welcome

ceremony at Ben Gurion airport on May 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/David Buimovitch)

Vatican City (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas will pray for peace at the Vatican on June 8, the Holy See said Thursday.

Pope Francis had invited the pair to his home for a "heartfelt prayer" for peace during his three-day trip to the region, and the meeting "will take place on June 8, during the afternoon," a date "accepted by both parties," the Vatican said in a note.

Despite expectations Francis would steer clear of the thorny politics of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his trip, the Argentine pontiff extended a personal invitation to the two men at the end of a mass in Bethlehem on Sunday.

"I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer... to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace," he said.

"Building peace is difficult, but living without peace is a constant torment," he added.

Last month, US-led peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators collapsed in bitter recriminations. That ended a nine-month bid to reach a solution and left no political initiative on the horizon.

Pope Francis (R) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas attend a

 welcome ceremony on May 25, 2014 in the West Bank Biblical town of Bethlehem

(AFP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The meeting had to be scheduled to take place before the 90-year-old Israeli president retires at the end of July.

"The meeting in the Vatican is to pray together, it's not a mediation," the pope said during the return flight to Rome.

"It is a prayer without discussions," said the pontiff, who has made interfaith dialogue a cornerstone of his 14-month-old papacy.

Peres is known for his close relationship with Abbas and has frequently pushed for a peaceful resolution of the decades-long conflict.

Earlier this month, he told an Israeli television channel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had blocked a peace agreement he had secretly negotiated in Jordan with Abbas in 2011.

Rami Hamdallah, the new Palestinian prime minister, left, with

 Mahmoud Abbas. (Photograph: Thaer Ghanaim/AFP/Getty Images)

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Obama signals foreign policy shift but insists: 'America must always lead'

• President promises less armed conflict and more diplomacy

• Tells cadets: 'We have been through a long season of war'

theguardian.com, Dan Roberts in Washington, Wednesday 28 May 2014

Obama said he would seek a path between the recent US interventionism
and a growing isolationist tendency. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

America should provide global leadership with less recourse to military might in future, Barack Obama announced on Wednesday, proposing a new foreign policy doctrine focused on soft power diplomacy and launching financial grants to fight terrorism through international partnerships instead.

In a graduation speech to cadets at the US military academy in West Point, New York, the president sought to carve a middle way between the relentless US interventionism of recent decades and a growing isolationist tendency that some fear will leave the world less stable and without a dominant superpower.

The much-anticipated foreign policy address came after Obama presented a delayed timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan but amid growing criticism from Republicans of foreign policy “weakness” after setbacks in Syria and Ukraine.

Yet the president rejected the choice between fighting wars or withdrawing from foreign challenges, arguing it was possible for the US to lead through example and by creating international alliances.

“We have been through a long season of war,” he told the first West Point class to graduate since 9/11 who are unlikely to be sent immediately into combat.

In future, he said: “US military action cannot be the only – or even primary – component of our leadership in every instance. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

The promise of a less aggressive American foreign policy comes despite Obama's increased use of drone assassinations and continued failure to shut the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.

Between the end of the cold war and 9/11, US presidents intervened militarily every 17 months on average, including Panama, Kuwait, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, but Obama said the end of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq offered the chance of a new approach.

“Here’s my bottom line: America must always lead on the world stage. If we don’t, no one else will,” he said.

“The question we face ... is not whether America will lead, but how we will lead,” he said.

In one of the few concrete policy proposals of the speech, Obama gave an example of alternative ways to protect US national security from threats such as terrorism by calling on Congress to support a new $5bn Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund to train and support partner countries in areas such as the Sahel.

“We must shift our counter-terrorism strategy – drawing on the successes and shortcomings of our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan – to more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold,” said Obama.

He also announced limited new steps in response to the Syrian civil war, promising greater assistance to neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq to “host refugees, and confront terrorists”.

But much of the speech dealt with the need to use international institutions to tackle broader global problems such as climate change and border disputes.

“American influence is always stronger when we lead by example. We cannot exempt ourselves from the rules that apply to everyone else,” said the president.

“What makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions.”

Obama arrives at West Point. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

And, in a nod to liberal interventionists in his team, Obama reaffirmed his belief that there were moral and national security motives for intervening in extreme circumstances.

“We have a real stake – an abiding self-interest – in making sure our children grow up in a world where schoolgirls are not kidnapped; where individuals aren’t slaughtered because of tribe or faith or political beliefs,” he said.

“When a typhoon hits the Philippines, or girls are kidnapped in Nigeria, or masked men occupy a building in Ukraine – it is America that the world looks to for help. The United States is the one indispensable nation.”

Yet the overall tone of the speech was of a president promising less armed conflict than in recent years to a military and a nation he believes are weary of war.

“But to say that we have an interest in pursuing peace and freedom beyond our borders is not to say that every problem has a military solution,” he said.

Referring to previous West Point graduates who died in Afghanistan, he said: “I am haunted by those deaths. I am haunted by those wounds. And I would betray my duty to you, and to the country we love, if I sent you into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed fixing, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak.”

Opinion polls suggest Obama's campaign promise to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remains popular among the US public, but his last-minute decision to eschew military intervention in Syria and apparent impotence in the face of Russian aggression in Crimea are giving growing ammunition to conservative critics who say US deterrence has lost credibility and will herald a new era of instability in the world.

“What we are facing is not war weariness, but world weariness,” historian Robert Kagan told a Brookings Institution policy debate held on the eve of Obama's speech. “I have begun to wonder whether we may be heading into a period that is not just a shallow and temporary retrenchment that we saw during the cold war [immediately after Vietnam and Korea] but is actually a much deeper and much longer retrenchment of the kind we saw after the first world war.”

Some prominent Republicans, such as libertarian senator Rand Paul, have welcomed such developments, but recently more moderate party leaders, including Bob Corker, ranking member of the Senate foreign affairs committee, have begun to advance a critique of US “weakness” that Democrats fear could be used against them in the midterm elections.

Corker issued a cautious statement in response to the Afghan troop announcement on Tuesday, urging a rethink before full US departure.

“It is my strong desire that the administration revisit conditions on the ground in 2015 and 2016 to determine if a full withdrawal is warranted,” he said.

Others, such as senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, are more hawkish still, but largely at odds with the party in their desire to see robust intervention in Syria and an aggressive response to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“President Obama is not ending wars, he’s losing them,” Graham said on Tuesday.

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SaluSa channelled by Mike Quinsey – March 29, 2013

“.. The darkness will eventually play itself out and is already losing its power to create more fear. In this respect, in spite of the apparent threat of war, know that it will no longer be allowed. The Galactic Federation of Light is aware of the intentions of all Superpowers and we will prevent any attempts to start a global war. ..”

 "Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”

Merkel tops Forbes 'powerful women' list

Yahoo – AFP, 28 May 2014

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives on May 27, 2014 to take part in
 an informal summit at EU Headquarters in Brussels (AFP Photo/Georges Gobet)

New York (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped Forbes's list of the world's most powerful women for the fourth consecutive year, followed by US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the magazine said Wednesday.

Behind them came Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her billionaire philanthropist husband, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

Hillary Clinton, former first lady, onetime Secretary of State and possible future US presidential contender, was listed at number six.

The annual list includes women in business, media, politics, technology, entertainment, philanthropy and non-profits, billionaires, and finance, a new category for the first time.

Janet Yellen speaks during commencement

 ceremonies for New York University at 

Yankee Stadium on May 21, 2014 (AFP

Photo/Andrew Burton)

"As we mark the 10th anniversary of publishing the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list, these impressive women from around the world continue to make a dramatic, lasting impact on our global footprint and in all aspects of our lives," said Moira Forbes, president and publisher of ForbesWoman.

Forbes has named Merkel the most powerful woman nine times.

Top businesswomen on the list include General Motors CEO Mary Barra (No. 7) -- subject of the Forbes cover story -- Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (No. 9) and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty (No. 10).

Forbes said the list features nine heads of state who run nations with a combined GDP of $11.1 trillion and 28 corporate CEOs who control $1.7 trillion in annual revenues.

In another measure of influence, the 100 women on the 2014 list have a combined social media following of over 812 million, the magazine said.

The list can be viewed here.

China Said to Push Banks to Remove IBM Servers for Security

Jakarta Globe, Steven Yang & Edmund Lococo, May 27, 2014

A combination photo of five military officers of China's People's Liberation Army.
 A combination photo shows five Chinese military officers who the US has
accused of cyber espionage. (Reuters Photo/FBI Handout)

The Chinese government is pushing domestic banks to remove high-end servers made by International Business Machines and replace them with a local brand, according to people familiar with the matter, in an escalation of the dispute with the US over spying claims.

Government agencies, including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, are reviewing whether Chinese commercial banks’ reliance on IBM servers compromises the country’s financial security, said the four people, who asked not to be identified because the review hasn’t been made public.

The review fits a broader pattern of retaliation after American prosecutors indicted five Chinese military officers for allegedly hacking into the computers of US companies and stealing secrets. Last week, China’s government said it will vet technology companies operating in the country, while the Financial Times reported May 25 that China ordered state-owned companies to cut ties with US consulting firms.

Harriet Ip, a Singapore-based spokeswoman for IBM, referred questions to IBM in the US Jeffrey Cross, a Somers, New York-based spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment outside US business hours.

“Security trumps everything,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based consultant to technology companies. “China doesn’t need the US companies in the way it did for the last few decades.”

The results of the government review will be submitted to a working group on Internet security led by President Xi Jinping, two of the people said.

Spokesmen for Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China declined to comment. Three phone calls to Agricultural Bank of China’s Beijing press office weren’t returned.

US technology sales in China have come under increasing threat following Edward Snowden’s revelations last June of a National Security Agency spying program. Forrester Research Inc. estimates purchases of information-technology products in China will rise 11 percent this year to $125 billion, meaning other US technology companies including Microsoft face threats to their business.

Microsoft said this month it was “surprised” to learn that China Central Government Procurement Center has excluded its Windows 8 operating system from a government purchase of energy-efficient computers. The nation’s official Xinhua News Agency called it “a move to ensure computer security.” China is the world’s largest market for personal computers.

“China’s government is in a strong position given Snowden’s disclosures,” Clark said. “If you give them an excuse, they will aggressively promote domestic brands.”

The directive would be a further blow to IBM’s business in China, where sales fell 20 percent in the first quarter. In an April conference call, Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter said the challenges were cyclical, “and we still see good opportunity over the long term” in China.

IBM announced in January it would sell its low-end server computer business to Beijing-based Lenovo for $2.3 billion. That transaction faces regulatory scrutiny including a US national security review. Angela Lee, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Lenovo, said she couldn’t immediately comment about the report.

In addition to concern about Armonk, New York-based IBM’s equipment as a security threat, China’s government also believes IBM servers are more expensive in China than in other regions, the people said.

China Postal Savings Bank is using servers made by Jinan-based Inspur as part of a trial program that began in March 2013, the people said. The government plans to expand that trial to other banks, they said.

The group’s Inspur International unit gained 10 percent to HK$1.53 at 2:57 p.m. in Hong Kong trading today. In Shenzhen, Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co. rose 4.7 percent.

Other agencies involved in the review include the National Development and Reform Commission, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the people said. The NDRC, the Finance Ministry, the central bank and the CBRC didn’t immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.

The US indictment, announced May 19, led China to suspend its involvement in a cybersecurity working group and drew formal protests from the ministries of defense and foreign affairs. The State Internet Information Office likened the US actions to “a thief yelling ‘Catch the thief.’”

Bloomberg

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Capitalism is doomed if ethics vanish, says Bank of England governor

Mark Carney issues strong critique of City behaviour and warns of growing sense that basic social contract is breaking down

The Guardian, Angela Monaghan, Tuesday 27 May 2014

'We simply cannot take the capitalist system for granted,' says Carney.
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Capitalism is at risk of destroying itself unless bankers realise they have an obligation to create a fairer society, the Bank of England governor has warned.

Mark Carney said bankers had operated a "heads-I-win-tails-you-lose" system. He questioned whether traders met ethical standards and said that those who failed to meet high professional standards should face ostracism.

Speaking at a City conference, the Bank's governor warned that there was a growing sense that the basic social contract at the heart of capitalism was breaking down amid rising inequality. "We simply cannot take the capitalist system, which produces such plenty and so many solutions, for granted. Prosperity requires not just investment in economic capital, but investment in social capital."

In a strongly worded critique of City behaviour in the run-up to the financial crisis, Carney said market radicalism and light-touch regulation had eroded fair capitalism, while scandals such as the rigging of Libor markets had undermined trust in the financial system.

"Just as any revolution eats its children, unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself. To counteract this tendency, individuals and their firms must have a sense of their responsibilities for the broader system."

Carney told delegates at a conference on inclusive capitalism in London – which was attended by the former US president Bill Clinton – that big banks had operated in a "heads-I-win-tails-you-lose bubble", with personal gain hotly pursued by bankers.

"All ideologies are prone to extremes. Capitalism loses its sense of moderation when the belief in the power of the market enters the realm of faith. In the decades prior to the crisis such radicalism came to dominate economic ideas and became a pattern of social behaviour."

The governor added that policymakers and regulators in the UK and internationally were addressing ways of making the system fairer and of limiting the likelihood of a future financial crisis through reforms.

But he stressed that there was a greater onus on banks and also bankers to take responsibility. Referring to changes afoot, after the scandals in fixed income, currency and commodity markets, he said: "Such changes are vital but they cannot anticipate every contingency or discipline every miscreant.

"The scandals highlight a malaise in corners of finance that must be remedied. Many banks have rightly developed codes of ethics or business principles, but have all their traders absorbed their meaning?

"Consideration should be given to developing principles of fair markets, codes of conduct for specific markets, and even regulatory obligations within this framework. There should be clear consequences including professional ostracism for failing to meet these standards."

He said G20 leaders and international regulators on the Financial Stability Board were working to resolve the issue of financial institutions that were "too big to fail", a problem which left taxpayers with a huge bill at the onset of the crisis in 2008.

"This is the year to complete that job," he said. "Perhaps the most severe blow to public trust was the revelation that there were scores of too-big-to-fail institutions operating at the heart of finance. Bankers made enormous sums in the run-up to the crisis and were often well compensated after it hit. In turn, taxpayers picked up the tab for their failures."

Carney said that ultra loose monetary in the UK had helped to prevent a lost generation of long-term unemployed, and improved long-term social mobility prospects.

He added new powers and responsibility handed to the Bank by George Osborne should help to reduce incidence of financial crises.

He said one of the lessons of the crisis was that compensation schemes that delivered large bonuses for short-term returns encouraged individuals to take on too much long-term risk. "In short, the present was overvalued and the future heavily discounted."

Pope says 'no privileges' for bishops on abuse

Yahoo – AFP, 27 May 2014

Pope Francis prays during a meeting with prelates, nuns and seminarists at the

 Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane, in east Jerusalem, on May 26,

2014 (AFP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

ABOARD PAPAL PLANE (Undefined) (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday warned there were "no privileges" for bishops when it came to child sex crimes and said he would hold a special mass with victims next week in the Vatican.

"Three bishops are being investigated," Francis told reporters on his return flight from the Middle East when asked about the thousands of scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.

"One of them has already been convicted. There are no privileges. Priests who do this are betraying the Lord," said the Argentine pontiff, who has set up a new committee to root out abuse.

Francis also said he would be celebrating a mass next week at his Vatican residence, St Martha's, with "six or eight victims" and would then meet with them privately to talk about their ordeal.

The pope last month personally asked forgiveness for the "evil" of abuses and promised more action in response to accusations of cover-ups and excessive leniency by the Vatican.

At a UN hearing earlier this year, Vatican officials revealed that 3,420 abuse cases had been handled over the past decade by the Catholic Church's Canon Law prosecutors.

As a result of these cases, 848 priests were defrocked -- expelled from the priesthood. A further 2,572 were ordered to "live a life of prayer or penance", for example in a monastery.

Pope Francis celebrates a mass at the site known as the Cenacle, or Upper Room,

 where Christians believe Jesus had his Last Supper on May 26, 2014 in Jerusalem's

Old City (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

The Pope also commented that the celibacy of priests is not a matter of Church dogma, while defending its value amid calls among some Catholics for the requirement to be dropped.

Pope Francis said "there are married priests in the Church" citing married Anglican ministers who joined the Catholic Church, Coptic Catholics and the priests of some Eastern churches.

The celibacy of priests "is not a dogma", the pontiff confirmed, apparently leaving the door open to debate on the subject.

The Church, and notably the current pope's predecessor Benedict XVI, had previously said that the celibacy issued was not a matter of unbendable church dogma unlike, for example, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One suggestion which has been made among church faithful is of the ordination of married men, especially retired men, who are already very engaged in church business.

It is not envisaged that single men could become priests and subsequently marry.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness.  …”

Modi sworn in as India PM promising 'inclusive' agenda

Yahoo – AFP, May 27, 2014

Modi sworn in as India PM promising 'inclusive' agenda (AFP)

New Delhi (AFP) - India's Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister Monday with the strongest mandate of any leader for 30 years, promising to forge a "strong and inclusive" country on a first day that signalled his bold intentions.

The 63-year-old Hindu nationalist broke with tradition and invited his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to the ceremony. Sharif hailed a "great moment and a great opportunity" for peace in the region.

The pro-business leader was also expected to reveal a sharply reduced government of 45 members, a cut of 26 from that of his predecessor Manmohan Singh, to try to speed up decision-making and slash India's notorious bureaucracy.

"Together we will script a glorious future for India," Modi said in a statement posted on the website of the prime minister shortly after he took the oath in front of President Pranab Mukherjee.

"Let us together dream of a strong, developed and inclusive India that actively engages with the global community to strengthen the cause of world peace and development," the statement said.

Ten days after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the first parliamentary majority since 1984, Modi entered office riding a wave of public support that has obscured his past as a controversial politician tainted by religious violence.

The former teaboy has risen through the ranks of right-wing Hindu organisations and was boycotted by Western nations for a decade over anti-Muslim riots that occurred while he was running his home state of Gujarat in western India in 2002.

He said in his statement that he was elected with "a mandate for development, good governance and stability" -- avoiding any reference to the Hindu nationalist plank of his party's election manifesto.

Senior members in his government are Arun Jaitley, tipped as finance minister, Sushma Swaraj, likely to be foreign minister, and Rajnath Singh, who is lined up for the home portfolio.

Figures such as Uma Bharti, a hardliner once expelled from the BJP after accusing the party of abandoning core Hindu concerns, indicated that the religious right would retain some influence.

'Chance to reach out'

As stocks markets rose at the prospect of a pro-business leader taking the helm of the world's largest democracy, the prime minister of India's nuclear-armed rival gave voice to a widespread sense of optimism.

"This is a chance to reach out to each other. Both governments have a strong mandate," Pakistan premier Sharif told India's NDTV network, according to a transcript provided by the Pakistan High Commission.

"Both countries should rid the region of instability and security that has plagued us for decades," he said.

He promised to pick up the threads of a failed peace process which went on during his second term in office -- which coincided with the last BJP government in India.

In 1999, then-Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rode a bus to the Pakistani city of Lahore to sign an accord with Sharif, but three months later the neighbours nearly went to war over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Sharif sat among other leaders from South Asia invited for the ceremony at the vast colonial-era presidency building, where thousands of dignitaries sweltered in the mid-summer heat during the oath-taking.

'Right turn'

After a decade of left-leaning Congress party rule, the 63-year-old Modi is expected to move India firmly to the right in the next five years with a mantra of "Minimum Government, Maximum Governance".

The BJP secured the first majority since 1984 at the election, trouncing the scandal-plagued Congress on a promise of reviving manufacturing and investment to create millions of jobs.

Modi's pledge to overhaul the flagging economy won over voters, along with his rags-to-riches story and reputation as a clean and efficient chief minister of prosperous Gujarat state.

"The country needs to be steered in the right direction now and only Modi can do it. He's got a strict school headmaster quality about him," Kavita Lal, a 32-year-old IT professional, told AFP.

Like many, she mocked the prime ministership of the 81-year-old Singh who rarely spoke to the media and was widely seen as lacking authority.

"It just seemed like for the last 10 years we had no leader in the country," she said.

Since election results on May 16, Modi has been at pains to put his divisive past behind him, appearing statesmanlike and generous even to political opponents.

In a rare sign of emotion last week, he choked back tears as he promised to try to live up to the expectations of all Indians including "our weakest and poorest" during a speech in parliament.

The invitation to Sharif was seen as a significant olive branch to India's Muslim neighbour and marked the first time that a leader from either country had attended his counterpart's inauguration since independence in 1947.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence. Bilateral ties broke down after the 2008 attacks by Pakistani gunmen in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

Narendra Modi, standing centre, takes the oath of office in Delhi. (Photograph: AP)

Narendra Modi shakes hands with Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif 

after the ceremony. Photograph: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

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In this handout photograph received from the Gujarat Information Bureau on

 May 22, 2014, India’s prime minister-elect and BJP leader Narendra Modi speaks

with his mother Hira Ba before leaving for New Delhi at her home. PHOTO / AFP

Pope Francis offers prayers at Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem

Stop rouses controversy as pontiff invites Peres and Abbas to Rome in unprecedented papal intervention in peace process

The Guardian, Peter Beaumont in Manger Square, Bethlehem,  Sunday 25 May 2014

Pope Francis visits Israel's separation barrier in Bethlehem. Photograph: AP

It is an image that will define Pope Francis's first official visit to the Holy Land. Head bowed in prayer, the leader of the Catholic church pressed his palm against the graffiti-covered concrete of Israel's imposing "separation wall", a Palestinian girl holding a flag by his side. It was, as his aides conceded later, a silent statement against a symbol of division and conflict.

The powerful gesture was made minutes after an appeal to both sides to end a conflict that the pope said was "increasingly unacceptable". The unscheduled, conspicuous stop halfway through his three-day visit to the Holy Land – made en route to an open-air mass in Manger Square, Bethlehem – confirmed Francis's reputation for determined independence.

So too did his invitation to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli president, Shimon Peres, to join him in Rome to meet and pray together for peace – an unprecedented papal intervention in the stalled peace process.

Francis waves to the crowds at Manger Square. He invited the Israeli and
 Palestinian presidents to come to the Vatican to pray for peace a month after
the collapse of US-backed peace. Photograph: Mohamad Torokman/reuters

Built by Israel as a so-called security fence to protect its citizens from attack after the second intifada, the barrier weaves through the West Bank, cutting through swaths of Palestinian territory and containing Palestinian residents. It has become an emblem of the Israeli occupation.

The pope's scheduled route took him alongside the wall, near Rachel's Tomb outside Bethlehem. His decision to step out of his white, open-sided popemobile and approach it – just days after the Vatican insisted his visit would not be controversial – was a surprise, not least for members of his own entourage.

Surrounded by Palestinian children, Francis's progress towards the concrete barrier was followed carefully by photographers and television cameras, as well as Israeli soldiers revealed in silhouette at the window of a nearby watchtower. "I know all about this," he is reported to have told one Palestinian official.

The Vatican's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said afterwards: "I was not informed [of his plans to stop]. It was planned by him the day before … It was a very significant way to demonstrate his participation in suffering … It was a profound spiritual moment in front of a symbol of division."

Pope Francis touches the wall that divides Israel from the West Bank,
on his way to celebrate a mass in Manger Square. Photograph: AP

Despite attempts by the Vatican to insist the visit was "purely religious", it has been loaded with political significance since Francis's arrival in a convoy of Jordanian military helicopters from Amman. While other popes might fly into Tel Aviv and proceed through Israel into Palestinian territory, Francis elected to bypass all Israeli border points.

In a carefully worded statement, delivered with Abbas in Bethlehem on Sunday, Francis referred directly to "the state of Palestine" and called on both sides to summon the courage to forge peace.

"For decades the Middle East has known the tragic consequences of a protracted conflict which has inflicted many wounds so difficult to heal," the pontiff declared. The situation, he said, had become "increasingly unacceptable".

Francis leads an open air mass in Manger Square. Photograph:
Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

"Even in the absence of violence, the climate of instability and a lack of mutual understanding have produced insecurity, the violation of rights, isolation and the flight of entire communities, conflicts, shortages and sufferings of every sort."

Francis proceeded from the separation wall to Manger Square in Bethlehem, which was packed with thousands of Palestinian Christians waiting for him to say mass. He entered the square – the reputed site of Christ's birth – to calls of "Viva al-Baba!" – or "Long live the pope!"

The service began with a rendition of the Palestinian song Mawatani – My Homeland – that speaks to the Palestinian desire for independence. The singers' voices echoed across a plaza hung with images linking Christ's suffering to that of the Palestinian people. The altar from which Francis delivered his message showed a baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh, the traditional Arabic scarf that is a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

Francis ate lunch with five families in a community centre on the edge of Deheishe refugee camp before flying out of Bethlehem into Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, where he was officially welcomed to Israel by Peres.

The helicopter flight meant Francis avoided crossing through the separation wall via a checkpoint as his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had done.

At Ben Gurion, Peres welcomed Francis, saying: "On behalf of the Jewish people and in the name of all the people of Israel, I welcome you with the age-old words from the Book of Psalms: 'Welcome in the name of the Lord.' Welcome at the gates of Jerusalem."

Here, Francis once again diverted from his prepared script. In Tel Aviv, the pope deplored an attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels on Saturday that left four dead, which he described as "this criminal act of antisemitic hatred". He added: "With a deeply pained heart, I think of those who have lost their lives in the cruel attack that occurred yesterday in Brussels."

While in Israel the pope will visit the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem, lay a wreath at the grave of the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, and meet the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew.

The pontiff visits Israel's separation barrier in Bethlehem. Photograph:
Ariel Schalit/AP

Francis will visit the holiest Christian sites in Jerusalem – including the Room of the Last Supper and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – amid a long-term decline in the population of Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land. A survey conducted by Near East Consulting and released in April found that two-thirds of Palestinian Christians would like to emigrate.

Israeli authorities have imposed tight security measures during his visit, deploying an extra 8,000 police officers. Restrictions on movement throughout the city have prompted some Christians to complain they will have little chance of seeing Francis.

Some of the security has been prompted by the pope's plan to celebrate mass at the Room of the Last Supper – or "Cenacle" – which has angered some Jewish religious hardliners who venerate the site as the tomb of King David.

Twenty-six people were arrested after stones were thrown at police close to the site.

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