In his Wednesday speech on the theme, "Culture of Peace, the prelate stressed that the U.N., "by its nature and mission, should be a school of peace."  Here, we must "learn to think and act while always bearing in mind the legitimate interests of all sides." Member countries, he continued, "must strive to overcome the simplistic logic of the power of force and replace it with the power of law and the wisdom of peoples, becoming 'builders of peace'."

Therefore, he added, "in this demanding task, individual believers and communities of believers have their place and their role to play.  Religions, despite the weaknesses and contradictions of their members, carry a message of reconciliation and peace."

Having stressed that believers must be "coherent and credible," the Cardinal said that Christians "cannot use religion to attack freedom of conscience, justify violence, spread hatred and fanaticism or undermine political and religious authority."

He went on: "Believers, in contributing to public debate and participating in the societies to which they belong, feel themselves called to co-operate in promoting the common good, which rests on a platform of values shared by everyone, believers and non-believers alike: the sacredness of life and the dignity of human beings, respect for liberty of conscience and of religion, practice of responsible freedom, acceptance of different opinions, correct use of reason, appreciation for democratic life and care for natural resources, to mention but a few," he said.

Concluding his speech, Cardinal Tauran called on his audience to "find the path to a safer and more united world," without renouncing their "cultural and religious identity."  We cannot "rest content with mere tolerance and vague commitments, let us make fraternity more than an ideal, a reality! "

Scientists said they had for the first time mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials and found much of it was similar to the genome for humans, the government-backed Center of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics said.

"There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order," center Director Jenny Graves told reporters in Melbourne.

"We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not. There is great chunks of the human genome which is sitting right there in the kangaroo genome," Graves said, according to AAP.

Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor at least 150 million years ago, the researchers found, while mice and humans diverged from one another only 70 million years ago.

Kangaroos first evolved in China, but migrated across the Americas to Australia and Antarctica, they said. "Kangaroos are hugely informative about what we were like 150 million years ago," Graves said.

The Israeli Air Force is ready to attack Iran's suspected nuclear weapons project if diplomacy fails to persuade the Islamic Republic to halt uranium enrichment, said Commander Ido Nehushtan in an interview published Tuesday.

The news comes as the U.N. watchdog agency reports Iran is probably at the point of being capable of making a nuclear bomb.

"We are prepared and ready to do whatever Israel needs us to do and if this is the mission we're given then we are ready," Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel.

A strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commander said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table ... The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."

The Jewish state, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has said it will not tolerate an Iranian nuclear bomb and has refused to rule out a military option.

Iran, which has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction, said on Tuesday it aimed to commission its first nuclear power plant in 2009. Tehran insists the program has only civilian aims.