BEIRUT: Despite the volatile security situation, Lebanon remains one of the top destinations for people seeking medical care in the eastern world, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon said Sunday. “Lebanon has been the hospital of the East, starting from the 1970s and up until today, because it still enjoys some advances in medicine,” Pharaon said […]

  BEIRUT: Despite the volatile security situation, Lebanon remains one of the top destinations for people seeking medical care in the eastern world, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon said Sunday. “Lebanon has been the hospital of the East, starting from the 1970s and up until today, because it still enjoys some advances in medicine,” Pharaon said […]

On our series analysing how France has suffered as a result of the reckless economic strategies, we meet small business owners in Toulouse who are crippled by payroll taxes that stifle growth and still fail to pay for the lavish benefits system

‘I’ve had enough,” says Charline Petit, the young co-owner of the bagel café on Place St-Aubin in central Toulouse. “I’ve been at this for three years, but I haven’t been able to pay myself since January. I can’t carry on like this, so I’m closing down.

“Everything is taxed. You can’t move without being taxed. Even when you are not making any money, you are taxed. I had to lie about my income to rent an apartment. So then the tax authorities said I had not been declaring enough. I was taxed again. If I stopped working, I would get all kinds of benefits, but as a business person, I get nothing. You are better off unemployed.”

To say “nothing” is possibly a bit of an exaggeration. In return for all those taxes, the French state funds a widely admired universal health service – better on many measures than our own National Health Service – and some of the most generous pension arrangements anywhere in the world.

On our series analysing how France has suffered as a result of the reckless economic strategies, we meet small business owners in Toulouse who are crippled by payroll taxes that stifle growth and still fail to pay for the lavish benefits system

‘I’ve had enough,” says Charline Petit, the young co-owner of the bagel café on Place St-Aubin in central Toulouse. “I’ve been at this for three years, but I haven’t been able to pay myself since January. I can’t carry on like this, so I’m closing down.

“Everything is taxed. You can’t move without being taxed. Even when you are not making any money, you are taxed. I had to lie about my income to rent an apartment. So then the tax authorities said I had not been declaring enough. I was taxed again. If I stopped working, I would get all kinds of benefits, but as a business person, I get nothing. You are better off unemployed.”

To say “nothing” is possibly a bit of an exaggeration. In return for all those taxes, the French state funds a widely admired universal health service – better on many measures than our own National Health Service – and some of the most generous pension arrangements anywhere in the world.

 khazen.org is very proud of the Catholic Church Family Synod of 2014. The Church Cardinals under the leadership of our beloved Pope Francis 2014 discussed very complex issues that the world is facing, from Polygamy in Africa, to the Persecution of Catholics in the Middle-East and high rise of Divorce & same sex Union in the West and the results of the Family Synod 2014 are clear, the Church will welcome everyone who is seeking God and that lives in conformity to the teachings of God.  A great way to unify our Church.

 Source: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com —

Professor Odon Vallet is an expert in the history of religions and civilizations and, since he is deemed a strong and radical "Progressive", he is a favorite in the French media to speak as a secular-friendly voice on Catholic issues.

In what sense did the provisional text [the Forte relatio] signal an important step?

The provisional text included two overtures. One regarding the remarried divorcees. The other regarding homosexuals. It was not a revolution, but an evolution. It was not proposed to admit the remarried divorcees to the sacrament, but simply to predict, either by marriage annulment, or by a penance procedure, the readmission to the sacrament. For homosexuals, there was no question of recognized marriage, but to underline the "gifts and qualities" that they could offer to the Church. They were welcomed, without however officially recognizing their [civil] union

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  As the Feast of Tabernacles came to a close this week in Jerusalem, attendees were encouraged to break their silence and fight against the persecution of Christians and Jews from the bloodthirsty Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Robert Stearns, founder of the worldwide prayer initiative, The Day of Prayer for the Peace of […]

  The Army Intelligence carried out on Saturday raids on Syrian refugee encampments in the northern city of Zgharta and the Mount Lebanon region of Iqlim al-Kharroub, reported the National News Agency. It said that 15 Syrians were arrested during the operation in Zgharta. A number of flags and banners of the Islamic State jihadist […]

  BEIRUT: A fifth column is working to destabilize Tripoli, north Lebanon Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar warned Saturday, blaming recent attacks on the Lebanese Army on foreign provocateurs. "Everything that is happening is the act of foreign individuals. The problem is not between the residents of the north and the Army or between Muslims and […]