{mosimage}It’s time to prepare the inevitable back to school budget and the list includes books, toys, clothes and a bullet-proof backpack.

{mosimage}A week ago, I wrote an opinion piece titled “Zimbabwe in 2008: What ought to happen versus what will happen.” I distributed the article to journalist  colleagues in Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States through an e-mail list. I am not aware if the article was used in any publication.

{mosimage}To many, the electoral crisis in Zimbabwe is a case of a greedy dictator and his ruling party refusing to give up power to a democratically elected opposition. Zanu PF and president Robert Mugabe have led the nation since independence from Britain in 1980.

{mosimage}This Dec. 10 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of the celebrated monk-poet Thomas Merton (1915-1968).

By the time of his death, Merton, born in Prades, France, a citizen of the United States and a monk for 27 years in the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, had an international following of enviable proportions, a publication record of staggering range and an influence by no means limited to the Catholic world. Merton was, and remains, a phenomenon, an utterly engaging figure, controversial, iconic, the paradigmatic monk for our century.

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VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI named 24 new cardinals on Wednesday but there were no Canadians on his list that included 10 Italians and two Americans.

It was widely anticipated that the Pope would name a Canadian to the body whose primary responsibility is selecting the pontiff.

Currently, Montreal archbishop Jean-Claude Turcotte is the only cardinal residing in Canada. In August, Cardinal Marc Ouellet took an important position in the Vatican. In January, former Toronto archbishop Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto turned 80 and became ineligible to vote in papal conclaves.

{mosimage}As Peruvians punch their way out of the rubble left by an 8.0 Richter Scale earthquake that struck the nation Aug. 15, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is collecting money the South American nation will need to rebuild.

{mosimage}The president of the Philippines is getting an earful from corporations with money to invest worried about the human rights record of Filipino police.