The world's tallest Jesus statue now reigns over a field in western Poland, on the outskirts of a small town with big hopes for tourism. But the statue reveals a lot about Polish Catholicism and the divisions within it.



The statue was completed last month, rising from a cabbage field. Measuring a towering 51 meters, it is a nearly 14 meters taller than the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro, and even beats the previous record-holder in Bolivia.

The setting may lack some of the grandeur of Rio's mountaintop - this Jesus stands across from the local Tesco supermarket. But residents in the town of Swiebodzin are no less proud of their statue. Dubbed "Christ the King", it was the dream of a local priest and was financed entirely through private local donations. But some people in Poland see the statue as being too ostentatious, or not representing the true spirit of Christianity.

During the statue's inauguration ceremony in late November, hundreds of pilgrims and curious onlookers descended on the town as a singing procession made its way down the street.

"It's beautiful, just beautiful," said one local man as he gazed at the statue, which stands on a small mound of earth and is topped with a golden crown.

Strong links

The link between the Catholic church and patriotism is strong in Poland, partly due to the Church's role in opposing communism. The country still has one of the highest church-going populations in Europe. In Swiebodzin, some people in the procession were carrying banners that read, "Jesus is the only king of Poland." One group was wearing red capes emblazoned with both a picture of Jesus and the Polish white eagle.

Another man wearing a cape says that he came because he is both a patriot and a believer, and he believes in what the church is doing for Poland.

Tourism boost

But other local residents see the giant statue as an opportunity to attract tourists to their town, which does not normally get many visitors.

A man who traveled from Germany just to see the statue, says he is not religious himself, but that he came out of curiosity and thinks there are others who will do the same.

Although Poland is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, Poles have been divided lately over the overt presence of religion in the public sphere. This debate came to a head last summer with a stand-off over a wooden cross outside the presidential palace in Warsaw.

Criticism

Swiebodzin's statue, which took five years to build, is not without its detractors. Some Poles see the whole project as ridiculous, while others simply think that such monuments do not represent the spirit of Christianity.

Tomasz Krolak, vice president of Poland's Catholic Information Agency, is one of them. He says that while he respects Swiebodzin's decision to build it, he doesn't think the statue has much to do with true Catholicism.

"I have a problem with this statue in Swiebodzin. I would like to point out that this idea - the monument in Swiebodzin - is not any central idea of the Catholic church in Poland,"" Krolak said. "The best way for the Christian community is to build monuments of Christ inside us, in our hearts, in our minds."

Main attraction

But for one young man from Swiebodzin, the issue is not so simple.

He says he is sure the money could have been better spent. "With that kind of money we could really have helped people," he says. He does think, though, that lots of people will come to see the statue, and it will be good for the local economy. "Plus," he says, "we will be famous."

Whether tourists will really flock to this small Polish town remains to be seen. But in the meantime, the locals are convinced that their giant Jesus in the cabbage field will finally put them on the map.

There’s a good reason why people should be concerned about having a healthy environment containing lots of animal and plant species. A new study says the loss of biodiversity may make humans more vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Biodiversity is one of the ways to measure the health of an eco-system. And the healthier an eco-system is, the better off we are. That’s because animals, plants and even microbes can act as a buffer between people and pathogens.

Associate Professor Felicia Keesing, an ecologist at Bard College in Annandale, New York, is the lead author of the study.

“Biodiversity is the diversity of genes, species and eco-systems that occupy the earth. Most of the time when we talk about biodiversity, we mean the diversity of species,” she says.

Keesing says the study adds a new reason to protect the environment.

“People have always recognized that there’s some sort of esthetic value in having all of these different creatures living on earth with us. Many people feel that there’s an ethical responsibility to protect them. But in the last couple of decades, scientists have begun to document ways in which biodiversity is actually providing services to us. Such services become practical reasons for protecting biodiversity as well,” she says.

It’s long been known that biodiversity helps provide clean water, cycles nutrients through the eco-system, and absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. But Keesing says the fact that biodiversity protects humans from disease is a compelling reason for conservation.

Sucking up pathogens

Keesing says, “What we’ve seen over and over again in different studies that we describe in our paper is that in diverse systems the species that are present either reduce the number of disease bearing organisms by competing with them. Or they suck up pathogens, sort of vacuum up pathogens, and then don’t transmit them again.”

That protection suffers as biodiversity is lost. Keesing says one example is Lyme Disease, which is a common tick-borne bacterial illness in the United States.

“If you have a low diversity system, the species that are present always include white footed mice. And white footed mice are very, very good at transmitting the Lyme bacterium back out so that humans are at risk,” she says.

Eco-systems under attack

Biodiversity faces many threats all over the world. The biggest, she says, is land conversion.

“We’re destroying habitats,” she says, “So there are fewer places for organisms to live. But there are also a lot of other threats. The key ones are also climate change. So as the climate changes species are struggling and in some cases going extinct because they can’t adapt quickly enough – or they have nowhere to go that has the appropriate environmental conditions.”

Other threats to biodiversity include the spread of invasive species of plants and animals, as well as overhunting or overharvesting of species.

“In many ways, the biggest threat is that all of these things are happening at the same time and interacting with each other,” she says.

Keesing rejects the idea that the loss of biodiversity is simply a matter of survival of the fittest, with humans being the most fit.

“Our survival,” she says, “is actually linked to the survival of these other species. So, neither our short term nor our long term survival prospects are increased because we’re destroying other species.”

Scientists are also considering what a loss of biodiversity means for such diseases as Ebola in Africa. In other words, could it mean the disease could become more common and spread to new areas if there’s a weak biodiversity buffer?

The Bard College associate professor says the effects of biodiversity loss are so clear, there’s no reason to delay protecting the Earth’s eco-systems.

South Korea has begun a fresh series of live-fire artillery exercises across the country. They are seen as a response to North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island, nearly two weeks ago.

As South Korea began a week of artillery drills across the country, the new defense minister ordered the military to exercise its right of self defense, should another attack be launched by North Korea.

Former Army general Kim Kwan-jin, who took office two days ago, told reporters Monday South Korea's military forces can immediately retaliate, if North Korea provokes first.

Park Syungje, at the Asia Strategy Institute, says the defense minister's statement is meant to make a distinction from the more cautious rules of engagement.

Park says the right-of-self-defense comment should deter North Korea from making additional attacks. He adds that South Korea is not expected to fire too closely to the disputed maritime boundary, known as the Northern Limit Line, during the current drills.

South Korean defense officials, contacted for interviews, would not comment on the precise locations where artillery will be fired into the troubled western waters.

It was in that area, during an artillery exercise by the South on November 23, that North Korea fired shells onto Yeonpyeong island.

On Monday, in Washington, the foreign ministers and other senior diplomats from South Korea and Japan are to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Officials here say the three countries will discuss the North Korean artillery attack and Pyongyang's nuclear programs, including its recently revealed uranium reprocessing operation.

After the November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong, South Korea's government and military faced domestic criticism for their slow and restrained response. The military did fire back artillery but aircraft were not sent to destroy the guns in North Korea which fired on the island.

Most of the 1,500 people living on the island fled to the mainland after the attack.

Monday, South Korea's prime minister vowed the government will do all it can to return life to normal on the battered island. Kim Hwang-Sik has announced $25 million in aid will be dispensed to displaced residents to help them rebuild destroyed homes. He also noted more troops and weaponry are being sent to Yeonpyeong and four other islands on the frontline.

The prime minister says that will allow South Korea to respond firmly to any further military provocation from the North.

Pyongyang has repeatedly taken aggressive action in waters near the Northern Limit Line, which it stresses it does not recognize as the sea border.

In its Sunday evening news broadcast, North Korean television warned the fresh South Korean artillery drills would bring the peninsula even closer to a state of war.

The announcer says such provocative madness is creating an uncontrollable, extreme and unpredictable situation. But she says North Korea, is, remaining cool-headed and in control.

The Yonhap news agency reports a South Korean presidential security panel has recommended that, in wake of the shelling of Yeonpyeong, the number of marines be doubled. The South Korean marines are a key force for the defense of the country's western border islands. The policy suggestions, according to the news service, include halting the reduction of how long those conscripted into the military are required to serve. In South Korea, a period of military service is compulsory for all physically fit men to complete between the ages of 19 and 30.

U.S. President Barack Obama is asking China to send a "clear message" to North Korea, as Japanese and South Korean officials gather in Washington to discuss the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

The diplomatic activity comes as South Korea stages five days of live-fire artillery drills that Pyongyang has denounced as an effort to trigger a war. It was during a similar drill last month that North Korea launched an artillery barrage on a South Korean island, killing four people.

Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke by telephone as the exercise began Monday morning. A White House spokesman said Mr. Obama urged his counterpart to let Pyongyang know that "its provocations are unacceptable."

Chinese media say President Hu expressed his deep concern about the situation and called for a "cool and rational" response on all sides.

Later Monday, the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea are to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss last month's artillery attack and North Korea's recent disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility.

The three countries have so far declined China's invitation to a wider meeting that would also include China, Russia and North Korea. They say that to sit down with Pyongyang at this point would reward it for bad behavior.

South Korea's artillery drills were scheduled as a response to the shelling on November 23 of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people and wounded 18. North Korea said it launched the barrage because the South was staging an exercise that involved firing into waters claimed by both sides.

South Korean officials declined to say specifically where Monday's drills were taking place. But previously, it warned vessels to stay away from 29 locations including Daechong, another island near the disputed sea border with North Korea. South Korean media said no shells had been fired near the border so far.

Pyongyang has denounced the exercise but has not specifically threatened retaliation. Seoul's new defense minister, retired General Kim Kwan-jin, has vowed a strong military response if the Pyongyang government launches another attack.

The Washington Post newspaper reports in its Monday edition that the United States is moving to strengthen its relationship with Japan and South Korea because of growing frustration with China. It says U.S. officials are reluctantly building what could become an anti-China bloc.

The newspaper says the Obama administration feels that China's failure to condemn North Korea as it develops nuclear weapons and attacks its southern neighbor has encouraged Pyongyang to believe it is free to act with impunity.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

Pakistani officials say two suicide bombers in the northwestern tribal belt have killed at least 50 people and wounded 100 others in an attack on an anti-Taliban committee meeting.

Authorities say Monday's twin blasts happened inside the compound of a top local government official in the Mohmand tribal region. The top political official in the region, Amjad Ali Khan, said the alleged suicide bombers attacked his office in the town of Ghalanai, where where tribal elders and top officials were meeting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistani army has been fighting insurgents in Mohmand, but has been unable to defeat Taliban and al-Qaida linked groups.

Militant groups have been targeting local tribesman, who have been encouraged by the military to form militias against insurgents.

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling on lawmakers to help him boost the economy with a new trade deal and compromises on tax cuts.

Speaking Saturday to promote a new trade deal with South Korea, Mr. Obama called for speedy ratification of the pact in Congress.

He said the deal reached Friday after three years of stalemate could increase annual exports of American goods by up to $11 billion and create tens of thousands of jobs.

"I look forward to working with Congress and leaders in both parties to approve this pact because if there is one thing Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree on it should be creating jobs and opportunities for our people," he said.

But Mr. Obama expressed disappointment Republicans in the Senate blocked measures Saturday to make tax cuts passed by former president George W. Bush permanent for the middle class.

"Those provisions should have passed," said the president. "I continue to believe that it makes no sense to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage to permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, especially when those high income tax cuts would cost an additional $700 billion that we do not have and would add to our deficit. But with so much at stake, today's votes cannot be the end of the discussion."

Republican lawmakers who voted against the initiative by Mr. Obama's Democratic Party want to make tax cuts permanent for all Americans, including the wealthiest. Republicans say this would help create jobs.

In the Republican weekly address, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk said the president and lawmakers should listen to voters who in November gave Republicans huge gains for the new Congress starting next year.

"These leaders should not raise taxes and risk another recession. Instead, Congress should reduce spending and prevent another tax hike on American taxpayers. Americans already pay some of the highest taxes in the world," he said.

If no compromise is found, current tax rates would expire for all Americans at the end of the year.

White House officials and a select group of lawmakers have been meeting over the past several days in an attempt to forge a compromise. Discussion points now include temporarily extending income tax rates, as well as extending jobless aid for the long-term unemployed, which are also starting to run out.

The struggling economy, including unemployment hovering near 10 percent, has recently been the main focus for the outgoing Democratic Party-dominated Congress, which will be replaced by a Republican majority House of Representatives and slim Democratic majority Senate in 2011.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the government will seize private land and tourist resorts to house the thousands of people made homeless by the worst flooding in 40 years.

Mr. Chavez ordered the government to seize nearly 36 hectares of privately owned land near the national airport and authorized the building of thousands of housing units.

He also authorized officials to take over unused hotel rooms and tourist resorts.

At least 32 people have died and more than 70,000 left homeless by flooding due to heavy rains in recent days.