Greeks are going to the polls in a general election, weeks after wildfires left more than 60 people dead. The main challenge to Prime minister Kostas Karamanlis and his centre-right party, New Democracy, is the socialist Pasok party, led by George Papandreou. Mr Karamanlis faced criticism over his handling of the fires, but analysts say he remains favourite to win after calling early elections. Polling stations open at 0700 local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday.
Mr Karamanlis faced criticism over his handling of the fires, but analysts say he remains favourite to win after calling early elections.
Polling stations open at 0700 local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday.
A Sikh school is opening its doors in a Paris suburb for the first time on Saturday in the wake of tougher French laws on religious dress. The special school in Bobigny was set up after secularisation laws in 2004 prevented Sikh boys from wearing their traditional turbans in class. Several boys dropped out of mainstream education in protest. The Sikh school was built by a local entrepreneur whose son was excluded from a public school three years ago. The boy had refused to remove his turban in class. The French laws ban the wearing of prominent religious symbols such as Muslim headscarves or Sikh turbans in public places like offices or schools.
The special school in Bobigny was set up after secularisation laws in 2004 prevented Sikh boys from wearing their traditional turbans in class.
Several boys dropped out of mainstream education in protest.
The Sikh school was built by a local entrepreneur whose son was excluded from a public school three years ago.
The boy had refused to remove his turban in class.
The French laws ban the wearing of prominent religious symbols such as Muslim headscarves or Sikh turbans in public places like offices or schools.
Fear of personal religious expression in the public sphere has no place in a liberal democracy, which should embrace its cultural diversity and pluralism, not try to pasteurize itself of overt religious expression through regulation and legislation. Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write.
Private and religious schools are free to impose any dress code. That's the solution the Sihks parents mentioned in the article have come up with: create their own private school.
A good solution for these children of immigrant families to grow up in the French society? You tell me...
The main target of the law passed a few years ago was the Muslim scarf worn by a small number of teenage girls at high school. The good souls who came up with this idea wanted to free the girls from the oppressive influence of their fathers / big brothers who supposedly forced them to wear the scarf.
Substitute the school authority to the family authority; that was the idea.
What struck me most was the obsession of mostly middle-aged men (our lawmakers) to tell young women how to dress. In the past (60s, 70s), girls were not allowed to wear pants at school, only dresses; also, many politicians wanted to ban the mini-skirt back in the days...
We are now in the early 21st century, but some things never seem to change... Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
Whilst it is certainly true that there are a number of women who wish to assert their muslim identity (we can discuss elsewhere that the more modernist and confident islam of 30 or 40 years ago wasn't so fussed about it) there are a large number of muslim women who deeply resent the cultural restrictions and burdens placed upon them. they are not in a position within their societies to speak up in their own defence, and need to rely on external "enforcements" in order to become free.
So, this isn't just simply about lawmakers making rules about how women should dress, it is about giving women the freedom to choose their presentation in the public space. keep to the Fen Causeway
The women freedom to choose their presentation in the public space is not as limited in a secular society like France as it is in more traditional Muslim countries.
You should note however, that here in France, the scarf is not always forced upon the young women in question: many of them decided to go that way against the will of their parents; often, their mother, aunts, etc.. don't and never have worn the scarf.
Speaking on TV, they sounded to me (white male, mid-forties) more like your typical rebellious teenage girl than anything else, and were often overachieving students at school which bodes rather well for their future, scarf or not. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
Now islam, in its Saudi dominated Wahhabi form, the backward fundamentalist mode that has dominated global islam in the last 30 years, is felt to be incompatible with modern western democratic liberal ideologies, thus triggering a crisis in individual believers that suggests an either/or choice that is less determined by the Qu'ran than by politically motivated power brokers operating out of the Arabian peninsula.
It is a more subtle and interesting process, but that's the capsule version. keep to the Fen Causeway
The battle lines are being drawn, the tear gas and the placards stockpiled. France is preparing for a political war that is unlikely to be over by Christmas. Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions. Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen, employees of the vast national electric company and many of the country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions, are capable of paralysing the country. This week Sarkozy is expected to announce that he will end the generous special retirement packages enjoyed or anticipated by the 1.6 million Frenchmen and women they represent and spark the first major clash of his presidency. 'If the government has already made a decision and is going to try to impose it, then there will be a major conflict,' said François Chereque, one railway union chief. A second, Bernard Thibault, promised 'sport ... and not just on the rugby pitch'. The threats of industrial strife are not idle. The last time a government tried to deprive train drivers of the right to retire at 50 on a full wage, a three-week nationwide strike immobilised the country and forced an ignominious retreat. But Sarkozy has signalled his determination to continue with the reform. Last week he called the special pension deals, which cost the French taxpayer £3bn a year, 'a disgrace'.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions. Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen, employees of the vast national electric company and many of the country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions, are capable of paralysing the country.
This week Sarkozy is expected to announce that he will end the generous special retirement packages enjoyed or anticipated by the 1.6 million Frenchmen and women they represent and spark the first major clash of his presidency.
'If the government has already made a decision and is going to try to impose it, then there will be a major conflict,' said François Chereque, one railway union chief. A second, Bernard Thibault, promised 'sport ... and not just on the rugby pitch'.
The threats of industrial strife are not idle. The last time a government tried to deprive train drivers of the right to retire at 50 on a full wage, a three-week nationwide strike immobilised the country and forced an ignominious retreat. But Sarkozy has signalled his determination to continue with the reform. Last week he called the special pension deals, which cost the French taxpayer £3bn a year, 'a disgrace'.
O how I wish I were there for this... Let's Go Red Wings!
it took the poll tax to get the phlegmatic brits to say 'basta', the french have a much lower flash point.
in fact i raise a glass to the french's forerunner role in showing despots what to do with their decisions.
what is it about the french?
sarko is like a cocky bantam weight taking on a truck.
it will be fun seeing him meet his come-uppance, the rate history is accelerating, it shouldn't be long... "This may be funny, but it ain't no joke." -Greg Palast
Suspect we'll have a better idea how things will play out on Tuedsay night... Let's Go Red Wings!
Don't folow UK politics closely enough (it depresses me almost as much as US politics, so why bother) to know if I should've stopped caring before then.
If anyone knows of an English-language daily generally worth the paper it's printed on, I'm all ears... Let's Go Red Wings!
I stopped going there back in Iraq run-up days because they had Fisk behind a firewall. Seemed a pity the only Engligh language journalist who would right twice weekly how full of shit the Americans were and he was behind the firewall.
I went back there today, and now he isn't. Wonder when that happened. Tho' I also seem to recall stormy having mixed feelings about the man and his integrity... Let's Go Red Wings!
Amid criticism from opposition parties, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Germans in her weekly video podcast on Saturday, Sept. 15, to support German troops deployed in war-torn Afghanistan. "There is no alternative," Merkel said, amid continuing criticism from opposition parties, which have called for a partial or complete pullout of Germany's biggest force abroad from the conflict. She said the issue was not just the welfare of the Afghan people but Germany's own security as well. Foreign troop deployments require regular votes of approval from the German parliament. The mandates for the peacekeepers and forces backing the war against the Taliban come up for renewal in October and November. "We must not leave Afghanistan to the terrorists again," said Merkel. Instead, the German chancellor said, Afghanistan had to be helped to establish robust government institutions.
"There is no alternative," Merkel said, amid continuing criticism from opposition parties, which have called for a partial or complete pullout of Germany's biggest force abroad from the conflict.
She said the issue was not just the welfare of the Afghan people but Germany's own security as well.
Foreign troop deployments require regular votes of approval from the German parliament. The mandates for the peacekeepers and forces backing the war against the Taliban come up for renewal in October and November.
"We must not leave Afghanistan to the terrorists again," said Merkel.
Instead, the German chancellor said, Afghanistan had to be helped to establish robust government institutions.
Good to see the Warsaw Pact mentality is alive and well in a country other than Poland. Nice of the Germans to have picked an Ossi, though too bad they didn't pick one from our camp... Let's Go Red Wings!
The domestic context is that the current Afghanistan mission (in a supporting role) is up for legislative renewal, and something like 2/3 of the electorate is agin it. There's no such thing as original sin - Elvis Costello
But the rhetoric is quite "global war on terror," especially the intervention in a state to fight non-state actors who may or may not be there. Let's Go Red Wings!
I fear neither side truly comprehends the situation. The Realos, just like interventionist liberals elsewhere, see noble goals and ignore the issue of whether they are achievable with the means at disposal, and ther allies at hand. And I'm not sure that many on the opposed side really contemplate how much in a dire straits the country is, and will be even without Western meddling. (So in effect I think the base is naive yet demands the right move.) *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
That's inexplicable and surreal.
Britain insists that it is safe to send failed asylum seekers back to Congo. Now a repentant secret policeman has revealed the sickening brutality that awaits returning opponents of the Kinshasa regime
His stories are as shocking as they are horrific. A former senior member of the secret police in the Democratic Republic of Congo has revealed the inside story of the regime's brutal treatment of its political enemies. This is one of the few times that a perpetrator of the violence rather than a victim of it has spoken out. Jules Waka Ndumba decided to tell The Observer the truth about the killing, rape and torture ahead of a key legal challenge against the British government's policy of attempting to deport failed asylum seekers back to the Congo. Ndumba, 40, worked as part of the personal security corps for the former president Laurent Kabila and as a secret police chief. He said it was usual for trusted officials to have more than one 'sensitive' job. Ndumba said he was involved in many acts of torture carried out at the notorious police headquarters, Kin Maziere, in the capital, Kinshasa. He said those most at risk of rapes, beatings and electrocutions at Kin Maziere are opponents of the government, both in DRC and abroad, and military deserters. Hundreds of people are tortured there every year, he said. Many of the inmates have been deported from the UK, France and Germany. Ndumba said techniques employed include: stripping inmates and beating them on the buttocks with an electric cable; bludgeoning them with a rubber baton until the skin becomes raw on the back and the soles of the feet; leaving prisoners in handcuffs so tight they cut into the skin, with hands tied either in front of them or behind their backs for up to three days; and forcing prisoners to drink large quantities of water before beating them on the stomach until they vomit blood.
Jules Waka Ndumba decided to tell The Observer the truth about the killing, rape and torture ahead of a key legal challenge against the British government's policy of attempting to deport failed asylum seekers back to the Congo.
Ndumba, 40, worked as part of the personal security corps for the former president Laurent Kabila and as a secret police chief. He said it was usual for trusted officials to have more than one 'sensitive' job.
Ndumba said he was involved in many acts of torture carried out at the notorious police headquarters, Kin Maziere, in the capital, Kinshasa. He said those most at risk of rapes, beatings and electrocutions at Kin Maziere are opponents of the government, both in DRC and abroad, and military deserters. Hundreds of people are tortured there every year, he said. Many of the inmates have been deported from the UK, France and Germany.
Ndumba said techniques employed include: stripping inmates and beating them on the buttocks with an electric cable; bludgeoning them with a rubber baton until the skin becomes raw on the back and the soles of the feet; leaving prisoners in handcuffs so tight they cut into the skin, with hands tied either in front of them or behind their backs for up to three days; and forcing prisoners to drink large quantities of water before beating them on the stomach until they vomit blood.
The UK government has argued DRC is a safe place to return failed asylum seekers and other migrants despite a warning on the Foreign Office website of a range of human rights abuses which include 'frequent reports of summary executions, widespread rape and sexual violence, banditry and forced labour'. Tomorrow will see the resumption of a court case, heard in camera at the immigration appeal tribunal, to determine whether it is safe to remove failed asylum seekers to DRC or whether all removals should be suspended because of the dangers to them.
Tomorrow will see the resumption of a court case, heard in camera at the immigration appeal tribunal, to determine whether it is safe to remove failed asylum seekers to DRC or whether all removals should be suspended because of the dangers to them.
Yea, right. AFAIK he was executed within days after being tortured for fun.
That's Britain, renditioners extraordinaire, supporter (and supplier) to torturers, friend of despots, dictators and other sundry ne'er do wells around the world. Anybody who has money and an expressed need for military might.
They make me revolted and ashamed. keep to the Fen Causeway
The mayor is a little uncomfortable. 'Could we go somewhere more private to talk?' begs Myriam Delacroix-Rolin. 'This cafe is Flemish-owned. These days things have become so sensitive. I should not be heard speaking French in there.' On Tuesday, Belgium marks its first 100 days without a government. There is every reason to believe that the Belgians, and the rest of us, will have to get used to it. The questions now are how will the divorce of Flanders and Wallonia be consummated, and what will become of Brussels, home to the EU and Nato? More worryingly, the demise of Belgium - a sticking plaster over the faultline between Europe's Protestant north and Catholic south - could make Europe a more dangerous place.
On Tuesday, Belgium marks its first 100 days without a government. There is every reason to believe that the Belgians, and the rest of us, will have to get used to it. The questions now are how will the divorce of Flanders and Wallonia be consummated, and what will become of Brussels, home to the EU and Nato? More worryingly, the demise of Belgium - a sticking plaster over the faultline between Europe's Protestant north and Catholic south - could make Europe a more dangerous place.
HILARY BENN, the environment secretary, is facing fresh embarrassment after a senior European Union official said that biosecurity at the government site blamed for the foot and mouth outbreak was a "parody". The European commission is to send officials to investigate the causes of the resurgence of the disease, which the National Farmers' Union estimates is costing farmers £10m a day. Alf-Eckbert Füssel, of the animal health unit at the European commission, said: "Last time it was clear it was an isolated incident, but this is different. Now we have to be afraid about further spread." He warned that under a strict interpretation of the rules the government-funded laboratory at Pirbright in Surrey should have been closed until it complied with EU standards. Füssel said EU investigators would fly in tomorrow to monitor attempts to control the disease and later to examine biosecurity at Pirbright, where the Institute for Animal Health, a government-funded body, and Merial, a private company, have laboratories dealing with foot and mouth disease (FMD).
The European commission is to send officials to investigate the causes of the resurgence of the disease, which the National Farmers' Union estimates is costing farmers £10m a day.
Alf-Eckbert Füssel, of the animal health unit at the European commission, said: "Last time it was clear it was an isolated incident, but this is different. Now we have to be afraid about further spread."
He warned that under a strict interpretation of the rules the government-funded laboratory at Pirbright in Surrey should have been closed until it complied with EU standards.
Füssel said EU investigators would fly in tomorrow to monitor attempts to control the disease and later to examine biosecurity at Pirbright, where the Institute for Animal Health, a government-funded body, and Merial, a private company, have laboratories dealing with foot and mouth disease (FMD).
[Murdoch Alert]
An Al-Qaeda front organization in Iraq has offered rewards to anyone who kills two Swedes behind a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog, in a statement posted on the Internet. The self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq placed a bounty of at least 100,000 dollars on the head of the cartoonist Lars Vilks and 50,000 dollars on Ulf Johansson, editor in chief of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper which published the caricature. "We call for the liquidation of the cartoonist Lars who offended our prophet," said the statement issued in the name of the group's leader, Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. "We announce a reward of 100,000 dollars to anyone who kills this infidel criminal. This reward will be raised to 150,000 dollars if his throat is slit," said the statement whose authenticity could not be verified. The statement also threatened attacks on Swedish firms unless unspecified "crusaders" issued an apology. "We know how to force you to apologise. If you do not, expect us to strike the businesses of your major firms like Ericsson, Scania, Volvo, IKEA and Electrolux," it said. The Swedish TT news agency said Saturday that Vilks was temporarily abroad, and quoted him as feeling safe but on guard.
The self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq placed a bounty of at least 100,000 dollars on the head of the cartoonist Lars Vilks and 50,000 dollars on Ulf Johansson, editor in chief of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper which published the caricature.
"We call for the liquidation of the cartoonist Lars who offended our prophet," said the statement issued in the name of the group's leader, Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
"We announce a reward of 100,000 dollars to anyone who kills this infidel criminal. This reward will be raised to 150,000 dollars if his throat is slit," said the statement whose authenticity could not be verified.
The statement also threatened attacks on Swedish firms unless unspecified "crusaders" issued an apology.
"We know how to force you to apologise. If you do not, expect us to strike the businesses of your major firms like Ericsson, Scania, Volvo, IKEA and Electrolux," it said.
The Swedish TT news agency said Saturday that Vilks was temporarily abroad, and quoted him as feeling safe but on guard.
Russian investigators arrested a former Chechen official on Thursday and accused him of organizing the contract killing of Anna Politkovskaya, the independent journalist and high-profile Kremlin critic, a Russian newspaper and Ms. Politkovskaya's former editor said Saturday. The suspected official, Shamil D. Burayev, was detained in Moscow. Mr. Burayev was once the leader of Achkhoi-Martan, one of the administrative districts in Chechnya, but was dismissed from the post several years ago. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Chechen presidency in 2003. The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, which reported his arrest, said that he had been accused under Russian law of organizing a murder, and suggested that he had ordered Ms. Politkovskaya's killing.
The suspected official, Shamil D. Burayev, was detained in Moscow. Mr. Burayev was once the leader of Achkhoi-Martan, one of the administrative districts in Chechnya, but was dismissed from the post several years ago.
He also ran unsuccessfully for the Chechen presidency in 2003. The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, which reported his arrest, said that he had been accused under Russian law of organizing a murder, and suggested that he had ordered Ms. Politkovskaya's killing.
Serb Sector's Hunt for Wartime Fugitives Falls Short, Bringing Calls for Change
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia -- The tip was vague but promising, like so many other recent leads that had failed to pan out. "One of the accused could be attempting to cross the border near the village of Bratunac" was the message relayed to Dragan Milosevic, chief police investigator in Republika Srpska, the Serb-governed sector of Bosnia. "The accused," Milosevic recalled in an interview, could have referred only to five Bosnian Serb fugitives charged with committing crimes against humanity during their country's 1992-95 ethnic civil war. Milosevic and two dozen of his officers proceeded to the small farming village, where they came upon a sickly-looking man in a baseball cap, walking alone on a dirt road. They recognized him as Zdravko Tolimir, a former Bosnian Serb commander who had allegedly helped lead the massacre of as many as 8,000 Muslim prisoners at Srebrenica in July 1995. "We asked, 'Are you the one we're looking for?' " Milosevic recalled in Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska. "He didn't resist. He said, 'I am the general, but don't expect me to talk to any of you. You are my enemies, the collaborators.' He still lives in the war and thinks of us as traitors. It looked like he'd been abandoned there." The May 31 arrest of Tolimir, who is accused of genocide and other crimes and will stand trial at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague, was hailed by international officials and Bosnia's Srpska government as a breakthrough in the hunt for wartime fugitives. But critics of the Srpska police force continue to accuse it of failing to pursue war criminals aggressively, perhaps at the behest of Serbia, the ethnic homeland next door. Some Bosnian Muslim politicians say Serbia is seeking to run out the clock on the tribunal, whose mandate for commencing new trials expires next year, though it could be renewed. Twelve years after the end of the war, four key Bosnian Serb fugitives remain at large, including the two most-wanted: Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb political leader, and his army's commander, Ratko Mladic. The 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war divided the country into two ethnic enclaves and gave each the right to police itself. Now, creation of a single multiethnic police force has become the biggest stumbling block in Bosnia's quest to join the European Union. Talks among Bosnia's factions resumed this month in advance of an upcoming deadline to produce a policing agreement that can be presented to European officials this year. "I am not optimistic," Raffi Gregorian, deputy high representative of foreign parties to the Dayton accords, said when asked about the prospects for an agreement. "And that means we're on hold another year before we get the process going again."
"One of the accused could be attempting to cross the border near the village of Bratunac" was the message relayed to Dragan Milosevic, chief police investigator in Republika Srpska, the Serb-governed sector of Bosnia. "The accused," Milosevic recalled in an interview, could have referred only to five Bosnian Serb fugitives charged with committing crimes against humanity during their country's 1992-95 ethnic civil war.
Milosevic and two dozen of his officers proceeded to the small farming village, where they came upon a sickly-looking man in a baseball cap, walking alone on a dirt road. They recognized him as Zdravko Tolimir, a former Bosnian Serb commander who had allegedly helped lead the massacre of as many as 8,000 Muslim prisoners at Srebrenica in July 1995.
"We asked, 'Are you the one we're looking for?' " Milosevic recalled in Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska. "He didn't resist. He said, 'I am the general, but don't expect me to talk to any of you. You are my enemies, the collaborators.' He still lives in the war and thinks of us as traitors. It looked like he'd been abandoned there."
The May 31 arrest of Tolimir, who is accused of genocide and other crimes and will stand trial at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague, was hailed by international officials and Bosnia's Srpska government as a breakthrough in the hunt for wartime fugitives.
But critics of the Srpska police force continue to accuse it of failing to pursue war criminals aggressively, perhaps at the behest of Serbia, the ethnic homeland next door. Some Bosnian Muslim politicians say Serbia is seeking to run out the clock on the tribunal, whose mandate for commencing new trials expires next year, though it could be renewed.
Twelve years after the end of the war, four key Bosnian Serb fugitives remain at large, including the two most-wanted: Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb political leader, and his army's commander, Ratko Mladic.
The 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war divided the country into two ethnic enclaves and gave each the right to police itself. Now, creation of a single multiethnic police force has become the biggest stumbling block in Bosnia's quest to join the European Union. Talks among Bosnia's factions resumed this month in advance of an upcoming deadline to produce a policing agreement that can be presented to European officials this year.
"I am not optimistic," Raffi Gregorian, deputy high representative of foreign parties to the Dayton accords, said when asked about the prospects for an agreement. "And that means we're on hold another year before we get the process going again."
· Economist warns of sharp downturn · Tory leader attacks Brown over crisis
Britain's house price growth will be halved next year as the global financial crisis exacerbates the impact of rising mortgage rates, according to Nationwide, the biggest mortgage lender. After the dramatic bail-out of high street bank Northern Rock underlined the impact of the American 'sub-prime' mortgage crisis on Britain's financial sector, Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's group economist, said she expected house price inflation to slow to around 3 per cent next year. Thousands of anxious customers queued outside Northern Rock branches for a second day yesterday, ignoring calls for calm from the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and the bank's management, and sparking fears of a full-blown 'run' on the bank. Speaking to Channel 4 News last night, Darling said he had been assured by the Financial Services Authority that Northern Rock was capable of meeting its financial obligations to its customers. In the first signs of political fallout from the crisis, David Cameron accused Gordon Brown of failing to rein in public and private borrowing over the last decade, saying the nation's economic growth is based on a 'mountain of debt'. Writing in today's Sunday Telegraph, the Tory leader says: 'This government has presided over a huge expansion of public and private debt without showing awareness of the risks involved.
After the dramatic bail-out of high street bank Northern Rock underlined the impact of the American 'sub-prime' mortgage crisis on Britain's financial sector, Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's group economist, said she expected house price inflation to slow to around 3 per cent next year.
Thousands of anxious customers queued outside Northern Rock branches for a second day yesterday, ignoring calls for calm from the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and the bank's management, and sparking fears of a full-blown 'run' on the bank.
Speaking to Channel 4 News last night, Darling said he had been assured by the Financial Services Authority that Northern Rock was capable of meeting its financial obligations to its customers.
In the first signs of political fallout from the crisis, David Cameron accused Gordon Brown of failing to rein in public and private borrowing over the last decade, saying the nation's economic growth is based on a 'mountain of debt'. Writing in today's Sunday Telegraph, the Tory leader says: 'This government has presided over a huge expansion of public and private debt without showing awareness of the risks involved.
Considering that prices have risen by 3-400% in London and at least 200% in many other parts of the UK over the last ten years, there's certainly room for a correction.
http://nihoncassandra.blogspot.com/2007/09/pfwoooor.html
[...] But the revealing thing was when I questioned him about yields. "Phfwooor, yields? Ha ha! No one cares about yields". "It's going up baby!". "He continued, "Take this flat here (FYI - a renovated basement studio lipsticked with recessed halogen lights, large flat screen entertainment centre and Franke fittings and Bosch turbowasher (but still shitty plumbing!) went for GBP210 a year-and-a-half ago, now its GBP405! He continued, "My mate, he bought a flat a year ago for 400, had 30k of carry for the year, and 20k of rental income and flipped it out 12mo later for 550. Yield? Who needs yield when prices are rallying like that??" "Ummm errr yes I interrupted, but, I was here in 1988 and I could swear I remember the secretary's all talking about their real estate triumphs in precisely the same language with exactly the same enthusiasm, but it too ended in tears". "It ain't gonna happen", he chimed. "At least not here. Not now, not to me. Things are different now. We've got Russians coming. It's a unique micro-climate. Everyone wants one. [insert additional reason of choice for denial here] And anyway prices HAVE kept going up, right?" He looked at me for confirmation that I couldn't give. Anecdotally, over the past few days, there seems to be a whole lot of flats empty & warehoused like that which I seen in my walks. I wonder if they are lereaged, and if so, by how much? I wonder whether the huge scale of gentrification is being undertaken speculatively and with leverage or whether its been comissioned privately, for cash, from LAST year's city bonus. And what would Shiller say about historical values, affordability et.al. after the continued run-ups? I'm not forecasting doom, for the restaurants remain full, and city is bubbling with life and wealth. Perhaps it will continue. But it is worth considering the impacts of deleveraging and US recession upon London Real estate, arguable the BEST asset class amongst its peers. For something that is leveraged, illiquid, with large bid-to-spreads that has doubled in the last year or two, and where lots of inventory is held by the specs for speculation, could just as easily see a quarter to a third taken right off the top, even before margin calls or negative equity kicked in. The rapidity with which residential values have compressed and transactions all but seized-up in some US markets is an awesome sight to behold. And the certainty with which that sees the market at this point in the cycle just smacks of classical overconfidence, and those exposed should, at the very least, take note.
Anecdotally, over the past few days, there seems to be a whole lot of flats empty & warehoused like that which I seen in my walks. I wonder if they are lereaged, and if so, by how much? I wonder whether the huge scale of gentrification is being undertaken speculatively and with leverage or whether its been comissioned privately, for cash, from LAST year's city bonus. And what would Shiller say about historical values, affordability et.al. after the continued run-ups? I'm not forecasting doom, for the restaurants remain full, and city is bubbling with life and wealth. Perhaps it will continue. But it is worth considering the impacts of deleveraging and US recession upon London Real estate, arguable the BEST asset class amongst its peers. For something that is leveraged, illiquid, with large bid-to-spreads that has doubled in the last year or two, and where lots of inventory is held by the specs for speculation, could just as easily see a quarter to a third taken right off the top, even before margin calls or negative equity kicked in. The rapidity with which residential values have compressed and transactions all but seized-up in some US markets is an awesome sight to behold. And the certainty with which that sees the market at this point in the cycle just smacks of classical overconfidence, and those exposed should, at the very least, take note.
Scrabbling for liquidity. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
NR will possibly be bought out, but sooner or later there isn't going to be anyone left to do the buying.
http://www.boursorama.com/infos/actualites/detail_actu_marches.phtml?news=4609278
A la Bourse de Londres, l'action Northern Rock s'est effondrée de 31,5% vendredi. Elle avait déjà perdu près de 50% depuis le début de l'année. Parmi ses concurrents directs spécialistes du crédit immobilier, Alliance & Leicester a perdu 6,9%, Bradford & Bingley 7,7% et Paragon Group 16,8%. Tous les trois ont assuré n'avoir aucun besoin de financement immédiat.
Parmi ses concurrents directs spécialistes du crédit immobilier, Alliance & Leicester a perdu 6,9%, Bradford & Bingley 7,7% et Paragon Group 16,8%. Tous les trois ont assuré n'avoir aucun besoin de financement immédiat.
Next in line?
A startling new household survey of Iraqis released last week claims as many as 1.2 million people may have died because of the conflict in Iraq - apparently lending weight to a 2006 survey in the Lancet that reported similarly high levels. More than one million deaths were already being suggested by anti-war campaigners, but such high counts have consistently been rejected by US and UK officials. The estimates, extrapolated from a sample of 1,461 adults around the country, were collected by a British polling agency, ORB, which asked Iraqis how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes. Previous estimates, most prominently collected by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, reported in Lancet in October 2006, suggested almost half this number, 654,965, as a likely figure in a possible range of 390,000 to 940,000. Although the household survey was carried out by a polling organisation, rather than by epidemiological researchers operating under the discipline of scientific peer review, it has again raised the spectre that the 2003 invasion of Iraq has caused a far more substantial death toll than officially acknowledged by the US or UK governments or the Iraqi Ministry of Health.
More than one million deaths were already being suggested by anti-war campaigners, but such high counts have consistently been rejected by US and UK officials. The estimates, extrapolated from a sample of 1,461 adults around the country, were collected by a British polling agency, ORB, which asked Iraqis how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.
Previous estimates, most prominently collected by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, reported in Lancet in October 2006, suggested almost half this number, 654,965, as a likely figure in a possible range of 390,000 to 940,000.
Although the household survey was carried out by a polling organisation, rather than by epidemiological researchers operating under the discipline of scientific peer review, it has again raised the spectre that the 2003 invasion of Iraq has caused a far more substantial death toll than officially acknowledged by the US or UK governments or the Iraqi Ministry of Health.
"Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return." -- President Bush in his speech Thursday on Iraq BAGHDAD -- "Ordinary" isn't a word that residents of Baghdad use to describe their lives. Gunmen are driving people from neighborhoods in the city's southwest. Electricity, depending on which block you live on, is available as little as two hours a day. Running water, if it's available, is unsafe to drink. Car bombings are down, but most residents won't leave their neighborhoods, frightened that they'll encounter Shiite Muslim militiamen or Sunni Muslim extremists who'll kill them. Some markets are reopening in the southern neighborhood of Dora under the watch of U.S. soldiers, but no one from outside the neighborhood visits. As for schools, it's hard to say: The school year hasn't started yet.
"Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return." -- President Bush in his speech Thursday on Iraq
-- President Bush in his speech Thursday on Iraq
BAGHDAD -- "Ordinary" isn't a word that residents of Baghdad use to describe their lives.
Gunmen are driving people from neighborhoods in the city's southwest. Electricity, depending on which block you live on, is available as little as two hours a day. Running water, if it's available, is unsafe to drink.
Car bombings are down, but most residents won't leave their neighborhoods, frightened that they'll encounter Shiite Muslim militiamen or Sunni Muslim extremists who'll kill them.
Some markets are reopening in the southern neighborhood of Dora under the watch of U.S. soldiers, but no one from outside the neighborhood visits.
As for schools, it's hard to say: The school year hasn't started yet.
In Saidiyah, in southwest Baghdad, Ali Mohammed, 30, a Sunni, said nearly all the stores in his neighborhood had closed as Shiite and Sunni gunmen battled to control the area. The only clinic closed three months ago. It didn't have any medicine, anyway, he said. A university student, he fears leaving the neighborhood because the checkpoints are manned by police commandos, units known to be rife with Shiite militiamen, who alert gunmen in civilian cars to attack suspected Sunnis. Three days ago, a father and son were killed at a checkpoint, he said. Bush, he said, "is speaking the opposite of what's going on on the ground."
A university student, he fears leaving the neighborhood because the checkpoints are manned by police commandos, units known to be rife with Shiite militiamen, who alert gunmen in civilian cars to attack suspected Sunnis. Three days ago, a father and son were killed at a checkpoint, he said.
Bush, he said, "is speaking the opposite of what's going on on the ground."
WASHINGTON -- Several thousand anti-war demonstrators marched through downtown Washington on Saturday, clashing with police at the foot of the Capitol steps where more than 190 protesters were arrested. The group marched from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war. Their numbers stretched for blocks along Pennsylvania Avenue, and they held banners and signs and chanted, "What do we want? Troops out. When do we want it? Now." (...)The number of arrests by Capitol Police on Saturday was much higher than previous anti-war rallies in Washington this year. Five people were arrested at a protest outside the Pentagon in March when they walked onto a bridge that had been closed off to accommodate the demonstration, then refused to leave. And at a rally in January, about 50 demonstrators blocked a street near the Capitol, but they were dispersed without arrests. The protesters gathered earlier Saturday near the White House in Lafayette Park with signs saying "End the war now" and calling for President Bush's impeachment.
The group marched from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war. Their numbers stretched for blocks along Pennsylvania Avenue, and they held banners and signs and chanted, "What do we want? Troops out. When do we want it? Now."
(...)The number of arrests by Capitol Police on Saturday was much higher than previous anti-war rallies in Washington this year. Five people were arrested at a protest outside the Pentagon in March when they walked onto a bridge that had been closed off to accommodate the demonstration, then refused to leave. And at a rally in January, about 50 demonstrators blocked a street near the Capitol, but they were dispersed without arrests.
The protesters gathered earlier Saturday near the White House in Lafayette Park with signs saying "End the war now" and calling for President Bush's impeachment.
Probably for the un-american activity of free speech and protest.
Actually, wider question : Is an Un-American activity a contradiction in terms ? keep to the Fen Causeway
An elite presidential guard unit of the military in the Central African Republic is primarily responsible for countless atrocities against civilians in the northern part of the country since 2005, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Friday. The report offers a grim and detailed portrait of the violence that has convulsed northern Central African Republic since a disputed 2005 election won by François Bozizé, a former general who seized power in 2003. The government is trying to put down two rebellions in the remote northern regions, vast swaths of territory with no paved roads or electricity and a long history of lawlessness. "The reprisal and counterinsurgency tactics of the C.A.R. security forces have affected the lives of over one million people," the report said, "and have forced an estimated 212,000 civilians to abandon their roadside homes and live deep inside the bush, too fearful to return to their burned villages in case of repeat attack." It said an additional "78,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Chad and Cameroon." Researchers documented 119 summary executions and other illegal killings of civilians, the report said, with at least 51 of them, including a teacher's beheading, carried out by one presidential guard unit based in Bossangoa, a town in the northwest. The presidential guard is controlled by Mr. Bozizé, the report said, and operates outside the normal command of the military.
The report offers a grim and detailed portrait of the violence that has convulsed northern Central African Republic since a disputed 2005 election won by François Bozizé, a former general who seized power in 2003. The government is trying to put down two rebellions in the remote northern regions, vast swaths of territory with no paved roads or electricity and a long history of lawlessness.
"The reprisal and counterinsurgency tactics of the C.A.R. security forces have affected the lives of over one million people," the report said, "and have forced an estimated 212,000 civilians to abandon their roadside homes and live deep inside the bush, too fearful to return to their burned villages in case of repeat attack."
It said an additional "78,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Chad and Cameroon."
Researchers documented 119 summary executions and other illegal killings of civilians, the report said, with at least 51 of them, including a teacher's beheading, carried out by one presidential guard unit based in Bossangoa, a town in the northwest. The presidential guard is controlled by Mr. Bozizé, the report said, and operates outside the normal command of the military.
White House Push For Oil, Gas Turning A Red State Purple
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- The Bush administration's aggressive drive to promote oil and gas drilling on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains has sparked growing anger here among traditional Republican constituents who say that the stepped-up push for energy development is sullying some of the country's most majestic landscape. The emerging backlash from ranchers and sportsmen, which is occurring despite an economic boom driven by drilling, is threatening GOP primacy in at least one corner of what has been a solidly Republican West. Long the most reliably conservative expanse of a state that has gone red in six of the past seven presidential contests, Colorado's western third shows evidence of the "purpling" that has made Colorado look increasingly like a swing state.
The emerging backlash from ranchers and sportsmen, which is occurring despite an economic boom driven by drilling, is threatening GOP primacy in at least one corner of what has been a solidly Republican West. Long the most reliably conservative expanse of a state that has gone red in six of the past seven presidential contests, Colorado's western third shows evidence of the "purpling" that has made Colorado look increasingly like a swing state.
"I can only speak for myself and I'm a registered Republican, but last year I voted a straight Democratic ticket. First time in my life," said Bob Elderkin, 68, who heads the town of Rifle's chapter of the Colorado Mule Deer Association, a hunting group that has made common cause with environmentalists against drilling. "The Republicans have kind of lost touch with reality."
The political tide in the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election appears to be sweeping toward former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, who, along with LDP Secretary General Taro Aso, registered his candidacy Saturday. Aso, who heads his own LDP faction, was initially seen as the front-runner. But he then watched as most party factions rallied around Fukuda, who belongs to the faction led by Nobutaka Machimura. Some political observers said the reasons so many factions have backed Fukuda are varied, though they believe it in part stems from a long-held belief within the LDP that he is prime minister material.
Aso, who heads his own LDP faction, was initially seen as the front-runner. But he then watched as most party factions rallied around Fukuda, who belongs to the faction led by Nobutaka Machimura.
Some political observers said the reasons so many factions have backed Fukuda are varied, though they believe it in part stems from a long-held belief within the LDP that he is prime minister material.
The morning after Abe's surprise announcement to step down, Fukuda told his aides, "Today, the situation will change by the hour," and he refused to scotch a rumor that he intended to run to replace Abe.
cross your fingers. Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write.
Rumours about the health of President Hosni Mubarak continue in the Egyptian capital, despite assertions from the authorities that he is fit and well. When Mark Twain read that his own obituary had been published he cabled the newspapers to assure them that he was still in fact alive, famously remarking that "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated". President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt might consider a similar tack. For weeks now Cairo has been full of rumours about the president's health, or lack of it. The news came at me from all angles, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, friends of colleagues, even wives of colleagues. "Have you heard?" they would ask. "The president is ill." On a few occasions I was even told in hushed tones that the president was, in fact, dead and had been for weeks.
When Mark Twain read that his own obituary had been published he cabled the newspapers to assure them that he was still in fact alive, famously remarking that "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated".
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt might consider a similar tack.
For weeks now Cairo has been full of rumours about the president's health, or lack of it.
The news came at me from all angles, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, friends of colleagues, even wives of colleagues.
"Have you heard?" they would ask. "The president is ill."
On a few occasions I was even told in hushed tones that the president was, in fact, dead and had been for weeks.
Then Hosni Mubarak himself spoke out. In an interview with a pro-government newspaper he accused "illegitimate movements" of being behind the rumours, a not very veiled reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful opposition group. Then the first lady, Suzanne Mubarak, in a rare television appearance said that journalists who published the rumours deserved to be punished. And that of course was the next move. Singling out one newspaper and one editor, among many, for trial. But by responding in this way the presidency and its supporters have turned what began as a rumour into a real story. They have also illustrated two important things about the country. Firstly, Mr Mubarak will not go on forever and there is no obvious successor. Most here assume it will be the president's son, Gamal, who will take over. But there is anxiety about who and what comes next. Secondly, the capacity to tolerate criticism and critics has slumped to a new low in Egypt.
In an interview with a pro-government newspaper he accused "illegitimate movements" of being behind the rumours, a not very veiled reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful opposition group.
Then the first lady, Suzanne Mubarak, in a rare television appearance said that journalists who published the rumours deserved to be punished.
And that of course was the next move. Singling out one newspaper and one editor, among many, for trial.
But by responding in this way the presidency and its supporters have turned what began as a rumour into a real story.
They have also illustrated two important things about the country.
Firstly, Mr Mubarak will not go on forever and there is no obvious successor.
Most here assume it will be the president's son, Gamal, who will take over.
But there is anxiety about who and what comes next.
Secondly, the capacity to tolerate criticism and critics has slumped to a new low in Egypt.
After years of favoring the hands-off doctrine of the Bush administration, some of the nation's biggest industries are pushing for something they have long resisted: new federal regulations. For toys and cars, antifreeze and fireworks, popcorn and produce and cigarettes and light bulbs, among other products, industry groups or major manufacturers are calling for federal health, safety and environmental mandates. Some of those industries are abandoning years of efforts to block such measures, often in alliance with the Bush administration, which pledged to ease what it views as costly, unnecessary rules. The consequences for consumers, though, are not yet clear. The tactical shift by industry groups is motivated by a confluence of self-interests: growing competition from inexpensive imports that do not meet voluntary standards, and a desire to head off liability lawsuits and pre-empt tough state laws or legal actions that were a response to laissez-faire Bush administration policies. Concerns that Democrats could soon expand their control in Washington have also prompted manufacturers or producers to seek regulations that they consider the least burdensome, regulatory experts say.
For toys and cars, antifreeze and fireworks, popcorn and produce and cigarettes and light bulbs, among other products, industry groups or major manufacturers are calling for federal health, safety and environmental mandates. Some of those industries are abandoning years of efforts to block such measures, often in alliance with the Bush administration, which pledged to ease what it views as costly, unnecessary rules.
The consequences for consumers, though, are not yet clear. The tactical shift by industry groups is motivated by a confluence of self-interests: growing competition from inexpensive imports that do not meet voluntary standards, and a desire to head off liability lawsuits and pre-empt tough state laws or legal actions that were a response to laissez-faire Bush administration policies. Concerns that Democrats could soon expand their control in Washington have also prompted manufacturers or producers to seek regulations that they consider the least burdensome, regulatory experts say.
BBC News - "The political movement loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has withdrawn from Iraq's governing Shia alliance. ¶ The move deprives Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's coalition of 30 votes - leaving it in control of about half the seats in parliament. The decision, announced at a news conference in the holy city of Najaf, comes five months after Mr Sadr pulled out his ministers from the cabinet."
Reuters - "The Arctic's Northwest Passage has opened up fully because of melting sea ice, clearing a long-sought but historically impassable route between Europe and Asia, the European Space Agency said. Sea ice has shrunk in the Arctic to its lowest level since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, ESA said, showing images of the now 'fully navigable' route between the Atlantic and the Pacific."
The Hill - "Retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Saturday morning he is endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) presidential bid."
AP - "The government's research on climate change is threatened by spending cuts that will reduce scientists' observations from space and on the ground, a report by the National Research Council concluded yesterday."
WaPo - "Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Washington today, from near the White House to the Capitol, where they staged a 'die-in' to demonstrate their fervent opposition to the war in Iraq. ¶ Protesters and counter-protesters started to gather by 8:30 a.m. for the first major anti-war protest in Washington since January, which is expected to be followed by a week of civil disobedience in the area intended to shift the anti-war movement to a more confrontational phase." The AP reports that more than 190 were arrested at Iraq protest.
LA Times - "In a new report to Congress, the White House acknowledged Friday that the Iraqi government had made little political progress in recent months, a finding that ended a week of debate over the war on a down note for the White House. ¶ The report said Iraqi leaders had improved their performance on only one of 18 measurements of progress since an interim report in July. Overall, the White House reported that satisfactory progress was being made toward half of the 18 benchmarks set by the administration and the Iraqi government... Democrats said the report showed continued failure of the administration's war policy."
Telegraph - "Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran... ¶ Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail. ¶ Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran. ¶ Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action." The Telegraph's story gives a run-down of possible scenarios on how a war will start.
LA Times - "Once the 'almighty dollar,' the U.S. currency is flirting with a new nickname: the American peso. Since 2001 the dollar has lost more than half its value against the euro. But the decline against its major rivals is just the most visible sign of the buck's loss of purchasing power. ¶ In much of the world -- from Brazil to Poland to Thailand -- one dollar buys less than it did a year ago, and far less than it did four years ago. On Friday, the U.S. currency hit a 30-year low against its Canadian peer... ¶ Among economists, the widespread view is that the dollar will keep declining. Some believe, however, that the trend could speed up." I can't do justice to the information in this article, please read it all.
NYT - "Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has opened an investigation of five large energy companies, questioning whether their plans to build coal-fired power plants pose undisclosed financial risks that their investors should know about... ¶ In letters accompanying the subpoenas, the attorney general's office asked whether investors received adequate information about the potential financial liabilities of carbon dioxide emissions that exacerbate climate change. ¶ 'Any one of the several new or likely regulatory initiatives for CO2 emissions from power plants -- including state carbon controls, E.P.A.'s regulations under the Clean Air Act, or the enactment of federal global warming legislation -- would add a significant cost to carbon-intensive coal generation,' the letters said. ¶ They added, 'Selective disclosure of favorable information or omission of unfavorable information concerning climate change is misleading.' ¶ Mr. Cuomo's move represents a new tactic in an expanding campaign against some of the more than 100 coal-fired power plants currently under consideration." I think this is awesome news!
NYT - "After years of favoring the hands-off doctrine of the Bush administration, some of the nation's biggest industries are pushing for something they have long resisted: new federal regulations. ¶ For toys and cars, antifreeze and fireworks, popcorn and produce and cigarettes and light bulbs, among other products, industry groups or major manufacturers are calling for federal health, safety and environmental mandates. Some of those industries are abandoning years of efforts to block such measures, often in alliance with the Bush administration, which pledged to ease what it views as costly, unnecessary rules.... ¶ 'I am worried about industry lobbyists bearing gifts,' said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington. 'I don't trust them. Their ultimate goal is regulation that protects them, not the public.'"
NYT - "The Border Patrol has reported a large drop in the number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border with Mexico this year, the consequence, the agency says, of additional agents and the presence of National Guard troops. Yet the number of migrants dying while trying to cross here in Pima County is on pace to set a record, according to the county medical examiner. ¶ Pima County, which includes the Tucson area, is one of the busiest areas for illegal crossings along the 2,000-mile border. The medical examiner's office handled 177 deaths of border crossers in the first eight months of this year, compared with 139 over the same period last year and 157 in 2005, the year the most such deaths were registered... ¶ A primary reason that immigration scholars, the Border Patrol and government officials in the United States and Mexico believe people continue dying at such high rates: As they increasingly avoid heavily patrolled urban areas, they cross with little or no knowledge of the desert, whose heat, insects, wildlife and rugged terrain make it some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet."
WaPo - "The Bush administration's aggressive drive to promote oil and gas drilling on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains has sparked growing anger here among traditional Republican constituents who say that the stepped-up push for energy development is sullying some of the country's most majestic landscape. ¶ The emerging backlash from ranchers and sportsmen, which is occurring despite an economic boom driven by drilling, is threatening [Republican] primacy in at least one corner of what has been a solidly Republican West. Long the most reliably conservative expanse of a state that has gone red in six of the past seven presidential contests, Colorado's western third shows evidence of the 'purpling' that has made Colorado look increasingly like a swing state."
Star Tribune - "Groundwater contaminated with industrial chemicals lurks under vast portions of the Twin Cities metropolitan area even though more than $200 million has been spent over two decades to combat the problem. The contamination, a legacy of once-prevalent industrial dumping, persists beneath communities from Edina to New Brighton to Woodbury. In Washington County, the spread of underground pollution is turning out to be worse than anyone thought... ¶ More than 1.8 million metro residents get tap water from the ground. Suburbs have a disproportionate share of the metro area's major groundwater chemical plumes, most of them created when the land was an open space."
Reuters - "The five interconnected Great Lakes have been abused by polluters, invaded by unwanted species and are overdue for a cleanup, environmentalists and many politicians say... ¶ The price tag for restoring the Great Lakes was recently estimated at $26 billion by a group of economists who projected the economic benefits of a cleanup. ¶ Completing the immense task -- rebuilding antiquated sewer systems, restoring decimated wetlands, blocking invasive species, and cleaning up contaminated lake sediments and polluted tributaries -- would lift residential property values that are within sight of the lakes by 10 percent, their report concluded. The $50 billion real estate gain would alone justify the investment that the researchers said could revitalize the surrounding region known as the Rust Belt... ¶ Restoration of the lakes would also bring a healthier fishery, fewer beach closings, and other benefits, the report sponsored by the Brookings Institution said."
AP - "Douglas Eugene "Gene" Savoy, an explorer who discovered more than 40 lost cities in Peru and led long-distance sailing adventures to learn more about ancient cultures, has died. He was 80. Savoy died of natural causes Tuesday at his Reno home, his family said Saturday. ¶ Dubbed the 'real Indiana Jones' by People magazine, Savoy was credited with finding four of Peru's most important archaeological sites, including Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the Incas from the Spanish Conquistadors."
Seattle Times - "A week after five Makah whalers illegally hunted a gray whale off Neah Bay, some of the tribe's leaders have begun to say that while they disapprove of the hunt, they understand why the whalers did it. ¶ Friday, with the help and permission of the head of the tribe's whaling commission, whaler Wayne Johnson sent out a lengthy written statement defending his actions and expressing frustration with the system that has held up a legal whale hunt for the tribe. ¶ And though Makah tribal leaders have uniformly denounced the hunt, many now are also saying they appreciate the frustration that drove the whalers to their motorboats. ¶ 'You could see this as an act of civil disobedience,' said Micah McCarty, a member of the Makah tribal council who trained in the whaling canoe alongside some of the same men who legally hunted the tribe's first whale in more than 70 years in 1999. 'It's not like they were rebels without a cause.' ¶ Still, McCarty remains resolute that the men should be punished."
The New York Times - Ayn Rand's Literature of CapitalismBy Harriet Rubin
One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957... The book is "Atlas Shrugged,", Ayn Rand's glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest. For years, Rand's message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled "do-gooders," who argued that individuals should also work in the service of others. Her book was dismissed as an homage to greed. Gore Vidal described its philosophy as "nearly perfect in its immorality." But the book attracted a coterie of fans, some of them top corporate executives, who dared not speak of its impact except in private. When they read the book, often as college students, they now say, it gave form and substance to their inchoate thoughts, showing there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit... One of Rand's most famous devotees is Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve... Mr. Greenspan met Rand when he was 25 and working as an economic forecaster. She was already renowned as the author of The Fountainhead, a novel about an architect true to his principles. Mr. Greenspan had married a member of Rand's inner circle, known as the Collective, that met every Saturday night in her New York apartment. Rand did not pay much attention to Mr. Greenspan until he began praising drafts of "Atlas," which she read aloud to her disciples, according to Jeff Britting, the archivist of Ayn Rand's papers. He was attracted, Mr. Britting said, to "her moral defense of capitalism." ... Shortly after "Atlas Shrugged" was published in 1957, Mr. Greenspan wrote a letter to The New York Times to counter a critic's comment that "the book was written out of hate." Mr. Greenspan wrote: " `Atlas Shrugged' is a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should."
One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957... The book is "Atlas Shrugged,", Ayn Rand's glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest.
For years, Rand's message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled "do-gooders," who argued that individuals should also work in the service of others. Her book was dismissed as an homage to greed. Gore Vidal described its philosophy as "nearly perfect in its immorality."
But the book attracted a coterie of fans, some of them top corporate executives, who dared not speak of its impact except in private. When they read the book, often as college students, they now say, it gave form and substance to their inchoate thoughts, showing there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit...
One of Rand's most famous devotees is Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve... Mr. Greenspan met Rand when he was 25 and working as an economic forecaster. She was already renowned as the author of The Fountainhead, a novel about an architect true to his principles. Mr. Greenspan had married a member of Rand's inner circle, known as the Collective, that met every Saturday night in her New York apartment. Rand did not pay much attention to Mr. Greenspan until he began praising drafts of "Atlas," which she read aloud to her disciples, according to Jeff Britting, the archivist of Ayn Rand's papers. He was attracted, Mr. Britting said, to "her moral defense of capitalism." ...
Shortly after "Atlas Shrugged" was published in 1957, Mr. Greenspan wrote a letter to The New York Times to counter a critic's comment that "the book was written out of hate." Mr. Greenspan wrote: " `Atlas Shrugged' is a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should."
LA Times - "Mexico's legislature approved major overhauls of the nation's tax and election laws Friday, untangling a months-long stalemate that had threatened to make the country ungovernable in the wake of last year's bitterly contested presidential election. ¶ Longtime rivals crafted the compromise in weeks of highly sensitive talks that gave President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, the tax reform it had sought for more than a decade. The leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which accuses Calderon's party of stealing the 2006 presidential election, gained tough new limits on negative campaign advertising and a purge of top election officials... ¶ Calderon was willing to compromise with PRD leaders even as they attacked him in public as an 'illegitimate' leader. At the same time, PRD moderates gradually and quietly distanced themselves from defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who proclaimed himself Mexico's 'legitimate' president after last year's vote."
WaPo - "The global population is expected to change from mostly rural to mostly urban in the next year, thanks almost exclusively to rapid migration to the cities in developing countries. Latin America has already become the most urbanized region in the world, and by 2030 about 84 percent of its residents are expected to live in cities. ¶ While urbanization brings certain benefits, experts say, governments are already struggling to provide health care for those left behind in the countryside... ¶ The isolation of small towns has attracted attention in Argentina not merely as a demographic trend but as a human rights issue. Thousands of demonstrators from the provinces gathered in Buenos Aires this year holding signs proclaiming "Hunger Is a Crime." Here in the northern province of Chaco, during a five-week period that ended last month, 11 people died of what local activists labeled starvation. Last month, a nonprofit organization called Responde launched a nationwide program to improve the delivery of food to rural regions where populations are shrinking. ¶ According to that organization, about 800 small towns in Argentina are at risk of simply disappearing."<>
LA Times - "Wind-blown fires scorching the parched Paraguayan countryside have scarred almost 3 million acres of forest, brush, pasture and farmland, officials said Friday, forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people and threatening nature reserves. ¶ A protracted drought and the common practice of burning land for agriculture have contributed to the disaster, which some authorities have called the worst fires in Paraguay's history. ¶ 'The complexity of the situation is well beyond human control,' Jose Key Kanasawa, chief of the National Emergency Secretariat, told Inter Press Service. 'The only thing we can do is contain it, resist it, stop it from spreading and pray that the rain comes.' ¶ Authorities have blamed an explosion of separate blazes largely on peasants who routinely use fires to clear pasture and farmland, especially to plant export crops such as soy beans and cotton. Hot, dry and windy weather has fanned the blazes. ¶ But experts cite other culprits: illegal loggers seeking access to protected forest areas, clandestine marijuana farmers and illicit hunters opening paths. Many of the affected regions have few police officers or other authorities." Was someone clearing brush from his new ranch?
AP - "Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez appealed to Colombia on Saturday to let him hold talks on Colombian soil with the leader of the FARC rebels in hopes of negotiating an exchange of hostages for guerrilla prisoners. ¶ Colombia's U.S.-allied government has resisted the idea, saying it would not be appropriate now for Chávez to travel to rebel-controlled jungles to try to broker a deal. But Chávez insisted on the point in a televised speech, asking President Alvaro Uribe to allow him to go meet Manuel Marulanda, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia."
Miami Herald - "In recent weeks, President Daniel Ortega has accused Washington of terrorism, blasted [George W.] Bush as a tyrant, dismissed the Sept. 11 attacks as 'insignificant,' mocked U.S. aid to Nicaragua and warned his police and military not to trust the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. ¶ Even after Washington sent $1 million and eight U.S. military helicopters as emergency aid after Hurricane Felix slammed Nicaragua earlier this month, Ortega issued only a cursory 'thank you' to the United States and instead praised the 'extraordinary' relief sent by his revolutionary brother in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez. ¶ Ortega's actions and rhetoric, a throwback to his days as leader of the Marxist Sandinistas in the 1980s, have strained but not significantly upset U.S.-Nicaraguan relations, according to U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli."
Globe and Mail - "Former prime minister Brian Mulroney said it was his government's adoption of the GST that ultimately slayed the federal deficit, rather than any actions taken by his Liberal successors.¶ In a luncheon speech yesterday to the Canadian Club, which packed a large convention hall with admirers, Mr. Mulroney took credit for an achievement that former Liberal prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin have proudly claimed as their own. ¶ After first noting that his Progressive Conservative government inherited the largest deficit in Canadian history from the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, he then defended one of his most controversial moves. ¶ The goods and services tax now raises billions of dollars for Ottawa through consumption taxes, he told the audience, adding that free trade with the United States also boosts government coffers."
The Telegraph - Angry savers force Northern Rock to be soldBy Iain Dey and Patrick Hennessy
Northern Rock, the crisis-hit bank under siege from thousands of its customers, was preparing itself last night for a sell-off, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. One plan being worked on by City bankers was to divide the company's £100 billion mortgage portfolio between the other major banks, in what would amount to a private-sector rescue of the lender. In scenes not experienced for decades, police were needed to keep the peace at branches across the country as increasingly angry and desperate investors rushed to withdraw their funds. However, despite many queuing from before dawn, scores were sent away empty-handed when cashiers ran out of time to serve them. The Northern Rock crisis sparked a wider political row as David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, pinned the blame on Gordon Brown. Mr Cameron accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a 'huge expansion of public and private debt' during his decade as Chancellor.
Northern Rock, the crisis-hit bank under siege from thousands of its customers, was preparing itself last night for a sell-off, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
One plan being worked on by City bankers was to divide the company's £100 billion mortgage portfolio between the other major banks, in what would amount to a private-sector rescue of the lender.
In scenes not experienced for decades, police were needed to keep the peace at branches across the country as increasingly angry and desperate investors rushed to withdraw their funds. However, despite many queuing from before dawn, scores were sent away empty-handed when cashiers ran out of time to serve them.
The Northern Rock crisis sparked a wider political row as David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, pinned the blame on Gordon Brown. Mr Cameron accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a 'huge expansion of public and private debt' during his decade as Chancellor.
Keep in mind one of the nicknames for The Telegraph is the 'Torygraph'.
BBC News - "The rush of customers taking money out of Northern Rock has continued for a second day, amid concerns over its emergency Bank of England loan. Banking sources suggest that on Friday alone clients pulled out £1bn - or 4-5% of retail deposits. ¶ Northern Rock has struggled since money markets seized up over the summer. Chancellor Alistair Darling and City watchdog the Financial Services Authority moved to reassure customers that the bank was still functioning. ¶ The bank is not short of assets, but they are tied up in loans to home owners. Because of the global credit crunch Northern Rock has found it difficult to borrow the cash to run its day-to-day operations." This was the BBC story from earlier in the day.
WaPo - "On both sides of the Atlantic, membership in once-quiet groups of nonbelievers is rising, and books attempting to debunk religion have been surprise bestsellers... ¶ More than three out of four people in the world consider themselves religious, and those with no faith are a distinct minority. But especially in richer nations, and nowhere more than in Europe, growing numbers of people are actively saying they don't believe there is a heaven or a hell or anything other than this life. ¶ Many analysts trace the rise of what some are calling the "nonreligious movement" to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The sight of religious fanatics killing 3,000 people caused many to begin questioning -- and rejecting -- all religion."
BBC News - "A German archbishop has sparked controversy by calling some modern art 'degenerate' - a term used by the Nazi regime in its persecution of artists. Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, was speaking as the Church inaugurated its Kolumba art museum. ¶ Cardinal Meisner warned that when art became estranged from worship, culture became degenerate. The cardinal had not intended to pay tribute to 'old ideologies', a spokesman said."
Observer - "The battle lines are being drawn, the tear gas and the placards stockpiled. France is preparing for a political war that is unlikely to be over by Christmas. ¶ Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions. Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen, employees of the vast national electric company and many of the country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions, are capable of paralysing the country. ¶ This week Sarkozy is expected to announce that he will end the generous special retirement packages enjoyed or anticipated by the 1.6 million Frenchmen and women they represent and spark the first major clash of his presidency."
Observer - "On Tuesday, Belgium marks its first 100 days without a government. There is every reason to believe that the Belgians, and the rest of us, will have to get used to it. The questions now are how will the divorce of Flanders and Wallonia be consummated, and what will become of Brussels, home to the EU and Nato? More worryingly, the demise of Belgium - a sticking plaster over the faultline between Europe's Protestant north and Catholic south - could make Europe a more dangerous place."
Independent - "Almost a century after it steamed to the rescue of the stricken Titanic, saving the lives of more than 700 stranded passengers, and 89 years after it was sunk, the wreckage of the RMS Carpathia has finally been explored, yielding precious artefacts. ¶ An amateur dive team performed a record-breaking feat of underwater archaeology to salvage objects such as the telegraph machine used on the liner to communicate between the bridge and the engine room. They also brought up crockery bearing the insignia of the ship. The divers' haul has been handed over to the owners of the wreck of the Titanic, and will be included in a touring exhibition that will visit London next year. ¶ The dive was led by a Manchester fireman, Ric Waring, whose 10-strong Dive Carpathia group spent an unprecedented 15 hours at depths of up to 160 metres investigating the bows of the liner, which lies 200 miles off the Cork coast and 250 miles from Plymouth. ¶ The liner was sunk by a German U-boat on 17 July 1918 while travelling as part of a convoy from Liverpool to Boston. Although the wreck was discovered by the American author and diver Clive Cussler in 1999, the depth at which the ship rests, its location far from shore, and the area's unpredictable weather conditions made it difficult for divers to explore. Only four divers have ever explored the Carpathia, surveying it for just 15 minutes each."
Independent - "The late lamented opera star Luciano Pavarotti was still lying in state in Modena Cathedral last week when the rumours started. Alberto Mattioli, a journalist writing for La Stampa, the Turin-based daily, cut through the mood of mourning with harsh, unsourced claims that the tenor had been miserable in his second marriage and would have separated from his young wife, Nicoletta, if he had lived. He also warned that there was likely to be a battle over the singer's will, in particular over an apartment he owned in New York. ¶ At the funeral, all Pavarotti's nearest and dearest were present, but Nicoletta and first wife Adua, to whom he was married for more than 30 years, did not even glance at one another. His second marriage, in Modena's municipal theatre in 2003, had been controversial: Adua had been the singer's manager for decades and many local people felt she was right to feel betrayed."
Guardian - "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle betrayed his dying wife for a younger woman. Now his letters have finally been made available after more than seven decades, his biographer Andrew Lycett pieces together the affair..."
BBC News - "The Russian space agency has blasted ten gerbils into space for a 12-day mission to test the possible effects on humans of a flight to Mars. The small mammals... are being kept in special cages with a supply of nuts and cereals. Day and night will be simulated and special machines will clean their excrement in the weightless conditions. The gerbils may find space preferable to returning to Earth - several are to be dissected upon their return." Poor gerbils!
SMH - "Much of the carbon dioxide that is belched into the skies by cars and industry ultimately ends up in our oceans. There it dissolves in a process called ocean acidification. ¶ Science has become aware of it only over the past few years, but the consequences of this hidden side effect of our greenhouse gas emissions could be devastating. Perhaps even bigger than climate change. The acidification of our seas threatens to ravage marine life around the globe and ultimately even damage land dwellers, including us. ¶ A disturbing aspect of this phenomenon is that it has been going on under our noses for decades and we haven't been aware of it. And even worse, much of the carbon we've put into the atmosphere during those years of ignorance is poised to further acidify our oceans over coming decades. And, unfortunately, there is little we can do about it."
WaPo - "The Chinese military put on a display of its first Darfur-bound peacekeepers Saturday, having troops throw up Bailey bridges and feign combat to dramatize Beijing's desire to be seen as a partner in bringing peace to the violence-torn corner of Sudan. ¶ The training demonstration, by an engineering unit of the People's Liberation Army, was observed by foreign journalists as part of a new campaign by the Chinese government to show that it is cooperating with the United States and other nations to end the Darfur fighting, which since 2003 has displaced about 2.5 million people and contributed to the deaths of as many as 450,000 from violence and disease."
AP - "China has ordered judges to use the death penalty more sparingly by showing leniency for murderers who cooperate with authorities and white-collar criminals who help recoup their ill-gotten gains, the government said Friday. ¶ The order is the latest effort by Beijing to reform capital punishment in China, which is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other countries combined... ¶ China regularly executes people for economic, political and nonviolent crimes."
Telegraph - "The proposed sale of a rare bronze statue, looted from Beijing by British and French soldiers in 1860, has run into powerful opposition from China, where there is rising anger over the millions of Chinese antiquities held by foreign museums and collectors... ¶ China is becoming increasingly vocal about its lost antiquities: more than 1.6 million pieces are in museums in 47 countries, according to Unesco, the United Nations cultural organisation, and millions more are believed to be in the hands of private collectors. ¶ Many Chinese regard foreign ownership of their cultural relics, especially those plundered by the former colonial powers in the 19th century, as a humiliating reminder of a weaker past. Now, officials of China's Fund for Rescuing Lost Cultural Relics from Overseas have vowed to try to stop the sale and are demanding that the statue be removed from open auction."
SMH - "Labor leader Kevin Rudd didn't wait for Prime Minister John Howard to call the election - he launched his own campaign yesterday in presidential style. ¶ Mr Rudd strode onto the stage in Penrith to a rock beat, wolf whistles and a sustained standing ovation from 400 party faithful who witnessed the unveiling of Labor's campaign slogan - New Leadership. ¶ While Mr Howard was shaking hands in a Carlingford shopping centre and contemplating when to call the election, Mr Rudd was seizing the initiative in western Sydney's mortgage belt, where Labor hopes to pick up several marginal Liberal seats."
SMH - "Permanent water restrictions for Sydney have been announced by the [New South Wales, Australia] government in a bid to combat climate change. Called Long-term Water Saving Rules, they will remain in effect regardless of dam levels or downgrades of the current water restrictions scheme. ¶ The rules include restrictions on watering between 10am and 4pm (AEST), the fitting of trigger nozzles on hoses and no hosing of hard surfaces. Premier Morris Iemma today said the permanent restrictions reflected the government's commitment to conserving water in the long term."
Telegraph - "Osama bin Laden's deputy has seized control of al-Qaeda and rebuilt the terror network into an organisation capable of launching complex terror attacks in Britain and America. ¶ Intelligence officials [claim] that bin Laden has not chaired a meeting of al-Qaeda's ruling shura, or council, in more than two years. ¶ Instead, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's nominal number two, is credited with rebuilding the terror network since the Afghan war in 2001. ¶ Intelligence sources in Washington have revealed that Western spy chiefs were recently forced to revise dramatically their view that al-Qaeda was so depleted that it was little more than a cheerleader for extremists. ¶ Instead, British and American intelligence agencies believe that a network of terrorist cells, funded, controlled and supported by al-Qaeda's central command, based in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, is in place again. ¶ Al-Zawahiri's task has been made easier because not a single prominent al-Qaeda leader has been captured since March 2006, nearly 18 months ago."
NYT - "Canadian forces this week regained control of roughly half of a strategic area outside of the southern city of Kandahar that fell to the Taliban in August, according to Afghan and Canadian officials. ¶ Four Afghan police officers died and two Canadian soldiers were wounded in an offensive that unfolded Sunday and Monday in the Zhare district, officials said. Seven hundred Canadian troops, backed by airstrikes and Leopard tanks, met little resistance from Taliban fighters."
WaPo - "An Iranian arms shipment destined for the Taliban was intercepted on Sept. 6 by the international force in Afghanistan in what appears to be an escalating flow of weaponry between the two former enemies, according to officials from countries in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. ¶ The shipment included armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, which have been especially deadly when used as roadside bombs against foreign troops in Iraq, the sources said."
Times of India - The Indian "government looks set to send a team for negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for India-specific safeguards and is readying for a showdown in Parliament and at polls early next year if Left retaliates by withdrawing support to the UPA coalition. ¶ Senior sources indicated that the government would like to hold negotiations with IAEA after the middle of October in defiance of the Left's veto, and is ready to rough out the consequences that might follow."
BBC News - "India's culture minister has offered to resign in a row over whether Hindu gods are mythological figures. Officials had presented the argument in court to support construction plans for an area devotees believe has remnants of a bridge built by the Hindu god Ram. ¶ Minister Ambika Soni said she would quit if asked to by the prime minister. She also confirmed that two directors of the Archaeological Survey of India, which prepared the court affidavit, had been suspended."
Telegraph - "Homegrown [Indian] idiosyncrasies have worked their way into the mainstream to such an extent that only fanatical purists question their [English language] usage. ¶ Now Penguin, the quintessentially British publishing house, has put the nearest thing to an official imprimatur on the result by producing a collection of some of the most colourful phrases in use - in effect a dictionary of what might be called 'Indlish'. ¶ Its title, Entry From Backside Only, refers to a phrase commonly used on signposts to indicate the rear entrance of a building. Binoo John, the author, said young Indians had embraced the variant of the language as a charming offspring of the mingling of English and Hindi, rather than an embarrassing mongrel." I need to get this dictionary!
BBC News - "The UN is warning of fresh rains and outbreaks of water-borne disease across Africa, where flash floods have already affected more than one million people. ¶ Scores of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the floods that have submerged much of the continent's most productive farmland. The UN said there was an urgent need for food, shelter and medicine. ¶ At least 14 countries have been hit in West, Central and East Africa by some of the worst rains in living memory."
LA Times - "Following a week of walkouts and heated arguments, an unlikely alliance of Somalian opposition groups found an ideological middle ground Friday, electing a moderate Islamist leader after agreeing to omit a reference to 'jihad' from its charter. ¶ But as it wrapped up nine days of talks in this Eritrean capital, the newly formed Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia also opted for a hard-line political strategy, essentially declaring war against Somalia's United Nations-recognized transitional government and the Ethiopian troops supporting it. ¶ Alliance leaders pledged to unify insurgent groups in Somalia and called upon all citizens to join its armed resistance."
McClatchy - "The Ethiopian government is starving and killing its own people in the remote eastern Ogaden region, according to refugees, who describe a terrifying four-month crackdown in which security forces have sealed off villages, torched homes and businesses, commandeered food and water sources, and beaten, raped or executed anyone who resists. ¶ Hundreds of civilians already may have been killed in the crackdown on a separatist movement known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front, according to interviews with dozens of Ogadenis who've gathered in a steadily growing refugee camp in this steamy port city 300 miles from the Ethiopian border."
WaPo - "As darkness settled over Marrakech's Djemma el-Fna Square and the crowds flowed in to pass the evening, a stylish young Moroccan couple in one corner of the plaza crouched by a necromancer, urgently whispering their troubles into his ear... Open fires roasting mutton for sale sent orange flames and towers of greasy smoke over Djemma el-Fna, adding to the medieval air of the ancient square, which is bounded by mosques dating to the 10th century." This is a beautiful essay by Ellen Knickmeyer called 'Whiling Away the Night In the Salon of the Sahara'. It is worth a read.
Observer - "A startling new household survey of Iraqis released last week claims as many as 1.2 million people may have died because of the conflict in Iraq - apparently lending weight to a 2006 survey in the Lancet that reported similarly high levels. ¶ More than one million deaths were already being suggested by anti-war campaigners, but such high counts have consistently been rejected by US and UK officials. The estimates, extrapolated from a sample of 1,461 adults around the country, were collected by a British polling agency, ORB, which asked Iraqis how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes."
LA Times - "Thousands of people paid respects Friday to the slain sheik credited with forging ties between Sunni tribesmen and the U.S. military, as American leaders mulled over the prospects of his expected successor... ¶ The insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq on Friday posted an Internet statement claiming responsibility for the killing of Abdul Sattar Rishawi, who had persuaded Sunni Muslim tribes in Anbar province that once backed the insurgency to accept U.S. cooperation and arms to fight militants. ¶ The killing of Rishawi on Thursday in a bombing outside his home was a setback to U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Anbar, which [George W.] Bush has cited as a success of the military buildup he ordered this year... ¶ The slain sheik's tribal coalition, the Anbar Salvation Council, will reportedly be taken over by his elder brother, Ahmed Rishawi, who lashed out against insurgents for the killing. 'We are going to continue our fight and avenge his death,' he said."
LA Times - "An insurgent group linked to Al Qaeda declared an offensive today to correspond to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and eight Iraqis died in a car bombing in a mainly Shiite district of Baghdad. The offensive was named in honor of Abu Musab Zarqawi, an insurgent leader who was killed by U.S. forces last year, said the announcement that was posted on an Islamist website. It will last until about Oct. 22."
AFP - "Ten people were killed and 15 hurt when a suicide bomber blew up his car outside a bakery in southwest Baghdad Saturday evening as Muslims were preparing to break the Ramadan fast, officials said. ¶ The blast occurred while people were waiting to buy bread in the mainly Shiite district of Amel about half an hour before the start of the 'iftar' meal that breaks the daily fast, an interior ministry official and a medic said."
Some of those industries are abandoning years of efforts to block such measures, often in alliance with the Bush administration, which pledged to ease what it views as costly, unnecessary rules.... ¶ 'I am worried about industry lobbyists bearing gifts,' said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington. 'I don't trust them. Their ultimate goal is regulation that protects them, not the public.'"
Maybe someone, some day, will make the point that it protects both... by providing standards that the publci can trust, and stable rules that he companies can build upon. Corporations, for the most part, will follow the rules if they know what they are and that they are applied.
Kepp the regulation simple, and enforce it. Tough can be simple. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should."
Does that apply to investment bankers and top executives, too? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Nothing illustrates the fundamentally adolescent nature of Wall St capitalism as clearly as its fetishisation of Ayn Rand.
"The global population is expected to change from mostly rural to mostly urban in the next year, thanks almost exclusively to rapid migration to the cities in developing countries.
So "mostly" = "larger by whatever margin, however small" Couldn't they use "majoritarily"? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
More worryingly, the demise of Belgium - a sticking plaster over the faultline between Europe's Protestant north and Catholic south - could make Europe a more dangerous place."
Message to British journalists: please keep your silly fantasies about divided Europe to your bedroom. It's unbecoming. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
If there were a prize for Illustrious Ignorance in Journalistic Writing about Europe, British journalists would win it. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
I can't suppress a bit of schadenfreude. There were a lot of pro-Democrat bloggers who fell for Clark's fake anti-establishment campaign. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Hide into the mountains, return once those mere 700 troops left. Harper celebrates victory, yet this offensive was meaningless. And occupying a country of this size with a few ten thousand troops is bound to be this 'successful'. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Many Chinese regard foreign ownership of their cultural relics, especially those plundered by the former colonial powers in the 19th century, as a humiliating reminder of a weaker past
Replace "Chinese" by "Jew" and "colonial powers" by "Nazi Germany" and read again the end of the sentence.
Unbelievable that something like that gets printed...
Once the 'almighty dollar,' the U.S. currency is flirting with a new nickname: the American peso. Since 2001 the dollar has lost more than half its value against the euro. But the decline against its major rivals is just the most visible sign of the buck's loss of purchasing power. ¶ In much of the world -- from Brazil to Poland to Thailand -- one dollar buys less than it did a year ago, and far less than it did four years ago. On Friday, the U.S. currency hit a 30-year low against its Canadian peer... ¶ Among economists, the widespread view is that the dollar will keep declining. Some believe, however, that the trend could speed up."
Just the most visible manifestation of the destruction Bush has wrought upon the US economy. And they still talk of repugnicans as the party of fiscal responsibility !!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA keep to the Fen Causeway
Ortega's actions and rhetoric, a throwback to his days as leader of the Marxist Sandinistas in the 1980s, have strained but not significantly upset U.S.-Nicaraguan relations, according to U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli."
given the systematic way that the USA encouraged terroristic activity that eventually destroyed the democratically elected government of Nicaragua under Daniel Ortega 25 years ago, I'm not surprised he seems to harbour certain resentments.
The USA owes nicaragua and other Central american economies billions in reparations before we can even begin to wipe the slate clean.
Oliver North and Fawn Hall delivered to Nicaraguan justice would be nice as well. keep to the Fen Causeway
"On both sides of the Atlantic, membership in once-quiet groups of nonbelievers is rising, and books attempting to debunk religion have been surprise bestsellers... ¶ More than three out of four people in the world consider themselves religious, and those with no faith are a distinct minority. But especially in richer nations, and nowhere more than in Europe, growing numbers of people are actively saying they don't believe there is a heaven or a hell or anything other than this life.
I know this was discussed last night but I would just like to add that I have nothing against religion, so long as it stays out of my legislature. Sadly religion has decided to get in our faces of late and so there will be pushback.
No to faith schools, no to religious hate-mongering homophobes deciding on Equality legislation. No people claiming that their "values" are morally superior to mine cos they're divinely inspired. How dare you !!!
Just remember all the child buggering priests protected by various churches and hang your heads in shame. The clitorectomies, the blatant misogyny, the utter hatred of gays. You smug sick hypocrites. keep to the Fen Causeway
A German archbishop has sparked controversy by calling some modern art 'degenerate' - a term used by the Nazi regime in its persecution of artists. Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, was speaking as the Church inaugurated its Kolumba art museum. ¶ Cardinal Meisner warned that when art became estranged from worship, culture became degenerate. The cardinal had not intended to pay tribute to 'old ideologies', a spokesman said."
Well, whilst we are assured that Papa Rat-Boy wasn't necessarily a Nazi, despite membership etc, we know all of his closest associates were. However, it's still quite shocking to realise that blatantly nazi-sympathies persist in the german catholic church.
Of course he now says he didn't mean it, but he said it nonetheless. He gets to express his views clearly and then pretend he didn't mean them. German society needs cleansing, evidently. keep to the Fen Causeway
A One-To-Go Airlines passenger jet with 128 people aboard crashed and broke in two while landing at Phuket Airport in foul weather late Sunday afternoon. Rescue workers said the death toll could be high. Anchalee Vanichthepbutr, identified by TiTV as a Phuket province official, said "more than 30" passengers were killed. The plane of the budget airline skidded off the runway after landing and crashed into trees, bursting into fire, she said. "The fire was throughout the aeroplane," said Phuket Deputy Governor Worraphot Ratsrimaa. "We expect that at least 90 per cent of the passengers died." But there was hope that many survived. TiTV showed two foreigners being carried away to local hospital. <...> "The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed,". he said. "The plane then fell onto the runway and broke into two. It is expected that there will be deaths. "The airplane asked to land but due to the weather in Phuket -strong wind and heavy rain -maybe the pilot did not see the runway clearly," said Chaisak.
Anchalee Vanichthepbutr, identified by TiTV as a Phuket province official, said "more than 30" passengers were killed.
The plane of the budget airline skidded off the runway after landing and crashed into trees, bursting into fire, she said.
"The fire was throughout the aeroplane," said Phuket Deputy Governor Worraphot Ratsrimaa. "We expect that at least 90 per cent of the passengers died."
But there was hope that many survived. TiTV showed two foreigners being carried away to local hospital. <...>
"The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed,". he said. "The plane then fell onto the runway and broke into two. It is expected that there will be deaths.
"The airplane asked to land but due to the weather in Phuket -strong wind and heavy rain -maybe the pilot did not see the runway clearly," said Chaisak.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Deaths along much of the Arizona-Mexico border are ahead of the record pace set two years ago despite tightened border security expected to discourage migrants from crossing, a border county medical examiner said. The office of Pima County medical examiner Dr. Bruce Parks, which performs autopsies on many of the illegal immigrants who die in Arizona, has tallied 181 bodies or sets of remains recovered between Jan. 1 and Sept 8. (...)Many of those victims have died because of the heat, which regularly exceeds 100 degrees during the hottest part of the Arizona summer. Much of the Arizona border is the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexico frontier. "We still anticipate finding remains between now and the first of the month," said the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based Humane Borders group, which has had search parties out looking for bodies the last two weekends. (...)Lloyd Easterling, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, said he believes more skeletal remains are being found because the agency's ramp-up of personnel and resources has more agents out patrolling remote, treacherous terrain. Hoover said the Border Patrol's efforts to shut off migration have just forced illegal immigrants to cross even more dangerous ground.
The office of Pima County medical examiner Dr. Bruce Parks, which performs autopsies on many of the illegal immigrants who die in Arizona, has tallied 181 bodies or sets of remains recovered between Jan. 1 and Sept 8.
(...)Many of those victims have died because of the heat, which regularly exceeds 100 degrees during the hottest part of the Arizona summer. Much of the Arizona border is the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexico frontier.
"We still anticipate finding remains between now and the first of the month," said the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based Humane Borders group, which has had search parties out looking for bodies the last two weekends.
(...)Lloyd Easterling, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, said he believes more skeletal remains are being found because the agency's ramp-up of personnel and resources has more agents out patrolling remote, treacherous terrain.
Hoover said the Border Patrol's efforts to shut off migration have just forced illegal immigrants to cross even more dangerous ground.
The Northwest Passage, the previously impassable shortcut between Europe and Asia in the Canadian Arctic, has now opened due to the shrinking of Arctic sea ice. The European Space Agency (ESA) has said that sea ice has shrunk in the Arctic to its lowest level since satellite measurements began 30 years ago. Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre said: "We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around three million square kilometres, which is about one million square kilometres less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006." "There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100,000 square km per year on average, so a drop of one million square km in just one year is extreme." A shipping route through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic is viewed as a cheaper option to the Panama Canal for many shippers. The most direct route of the Northwest Passage across northern Canada is now "fully navigable", while the so-called Northeast Passage along the Siberian coast "remains only partially blocked," ESA said. While the Northeast Passage remained partially blocked, it may open sooner than expected, Pedersen said.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has said that sea ice has shrunk in the Arctic to its lowest level since satellite measurements began 30 years ago.
Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre said: "We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around three million square kilometres, which is about one million square kilometres less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006."
"There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100,000 square km per year on average, so a drop of one million square km in just one year is extreme."
A shipping route through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic is viewed as a cheaper option to the Panama Canal for many shippers.
The most direct route of the Northwest Passage across northern Canada is now "fully navigable", while the so-called Northeast Passage along the Siberian coast "remains only partially blocked," ESA said.
While the Northeast Passage remained partially blocked, it may open sooner than expected, Pedersen said.
THE highly respected former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, launches a harshly critical attack on President George W Bush's economic competence in his memoir published tomorrow. While his declaration that America's prime motive for the Iraq war was oil will set off one political storm, his onslaught against Republican fiscal mismanagement will cause another, just as the economy becomes a big issue in the primary election campaign. Greenspan's 531-page book will do little to restore faith in the Bush administration's claims of economic proficiency at a time when the markets are deeply unsettled. He has harsh words for Bush, the vice-president, Dick Cheney, and the Republicans over their big spending and lack of financial discipline. They are contrasted with former president Bill Clinton, whom Greenspan clearly admires. He writes that Bush's failure to curb spending was "a major mistake" and that Republican congressmen were "feeding at the trough". "The Republicans in Congress lost their way," he says. "They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose [the 2006 congressional election]."
While his declaration that America's prime motive for the Iraq war was oil will set off one political storm, his onslaught against Republican fiscal mismanagement will cause another, just as the economy becomes a big issue in the primary election campaign.
Greenspan's 531-page book will do little to restore faith in the Bush administration's claims of economic proficiency at a time when the markets are deeply unsettled. He has harsh words for Bush, the vice-president, Dick Cheney, and the Republicans over their big spending and lack of financial discipline. They are contrasted with former president Bill Clinton, whom Greenspan clearly admires.
He writes that Bush's failure to curb spending was "a major mistake" and that Republican congressmen were "feeding at the trough". "The Republicans in Congress lost their way," he says. "They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose [the 2006 congressional election]."
If one were to call him a lying sack of shit, one would not be inaccurate. It wasn't the spending that exploded the deficit, it was the tax cuts that he had concluded would be no fiscal problem. Tax cuts for the wealthy. Would it surprise anyone to learn that Alan Greenspan is a very wealthy man?
Given Greenspan's affection for Ayn Rand, one wonders what thing Bush might have done that didn't meet with Greenspan's approval.
As Jane Smiley wrote at HuffPo
What amazes me is that Republicans who are now exclaiming at what has happened to the Republican Party (and yes, I talked to my mother this morning) didn't see this coming. Everything, every value, that the Republicans have held up for my lifetime as desirable has been pointing us in this direction. As I've said before on the HuffPost, all of this is the necessary consequence of traditional Republican values, not an accidental byproduct. Or maybe I'll put it this way -- when you reject common humanity, value profits above people, practice sectarian religion, feel contempt for the choices of others, exalt wealth, conflate consumersim with citizenship, join exclusive clubs, daily practice unkindness rather than kindness, and develop theories, such as those of free market capitalism, that allow you to congratulate yourself morally for selfishness and short-sightedness, then being a gang member is in your future.
TOKYO, Sept. 15 -- Since the credit crisis started shaking the world financial markets this summer, many professional traders have taken big losses. Another, less likely group of investors has, too: middle-class Japanese homemakers who moonlight as amateur currency speculators. Ms. Itoh is one of them. Ms. Itoh, a homemaker in the central city of Nagoya, did not want her full name used because her husband still does not know. After cleaning the dinner dishes, she would spend her evenings buying and selling British pounds and Australian dollars. When the turmoil struck the currency markets last month, Ms. Itoh spent a sleepless week as market losses wiped out her holdings. She lost nearly all her family's $100,000 in savings."I wanted to add to our savings, but instead I got in over my head," Ms. Itoh, 36, said.Tens of thousands of married Japanese women ventured into online currency trading in the last year and a half, playing the markets between household chores or after tucking the children into bed. While the overwhelmingly male world of traders and investors here mocked them as kimono-clad "Mrs. Watanabes," these women collectively emerged as a powerful force, using Japan's vast wealth to sway prices and confound economists.
TOKYO, Sept. 15 -- Since the credit crisis started shaking the world financial markets this summer, many professional traders have taken big losses. Another, less likely group of investors has, too: middle-class Japanese homemakers who moonlight as amateur currency speculators.
Ms. Itoh is one of them. Ms. Itoh, a homemaker in the central city of Nagoya, did not want her full name used because her husband still does not know. After cleaning the dinner dishes, she would spend her evenings buying and selling British pounds and Australian dollars.
When the turmoil struck the currency markets last month, Ms. Itoh spent a sleepless week as market losses wiped out her holdings. She lost nearly all her family's $100,000 in savings.
"I wanted to add to our savings, but instead I got in over my head," Ms. Itoh, 36, said.
Tens of thousands of married Japanese women ventured into online currency trading in the last year and a half, playing the markets between household chores or after tucking the children into bed. While the overwhelmingly male world of traders and investors here mocked them as kimono-clad "Mrs. Watanabes," these women collectively emerged as a powerful force, using Japan's vast wealth to sway prices and confound economists.
Malthus and Mein Kampf come to Cork For those who like their environmental gloom'n'doom spread with a thick dollop of Utopian totalitarianism and garnished with a slice of Galtonian pseudo-science, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas holds its sixth annual conference in Ireland this coming week. Present will be the usual motley of silk-suited Carbohypocrites - each avidly promoting their tax-eating, alternative-energy start-ups - a gang of anti-capitalist activists, a squawk of sensescent members of the poitical elite, and a whole Bronze Age roundhouse of associated Gaia worshippers.
For those who like their environmental gloom'n'doom spread with a thick dollop of Utopian totalitarianism and garnished with a slice of Galtonian pseudo-science, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas holds its sixth annual conference in Ireland this coming week.
Present will be the usual motley of silk-suited Carbohypocrites - each avidly promoting their tax-eating, alternative-energy start-ups - a gang of anti-capitalist activists, a squawk of sensescent members of the poitical elite, and a whole Bronze Age roundhouse of associated Gaia worshippers.
6 members of the Oil Drum (where I also write) will be at that conference, including in speaking roles.... In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Given that, and the fact that weekends are sort of slow for news, I beg your forgiveness in advance if I post stories that are old, previously posted, already diaried, open-threaded, discussed in the comments, or flame-warred about already. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
Hope everyone's having a lovely Sunday!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Six months after achieving Oscar glory for his climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore is headed back to the red carpet for the Emmys, U.S. television's highest honors. Gore is expected to receive an "interactive television services" Emmy, a noncompetitive award, on Sunday for his fledgling cable network and online video venture Current TV, which he launched in August 2005. Current is one of five finalists for the award, decided by an interactive-media "peer jury" of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and presented for the first time during the live telecast of the Primetime Emmy Awards.
Gore is expected to receive an "interactive television services" Emmy, a noncompetitive award, on Sunday for his fledgling cable network and online video venture Current TV, which he launched in August 2005.
Current is one of five finalists for the award, decided by an interactive-media "peer jury" of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and presented for the first time during the live telecast of the Primetime Emmy Awards.
I will, of course, be following the Emmys live, Sunday evening my time. Just to, y'know, be vigilant. In case anything, uh, political happens. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
According to estimates made by the Association of Finnish Technical Traders, sales to Russia by Finnish wholesalers and retailers will reach more than EUR 1.3 billion in the course of the current year. The exports of commercial sector services to the neighbouring country are showing the strongest growth. The total sales of Finnish commercial enterprises to Russia have increased by some 33 per cent since last year, even though the entire exports to the eastern neighbour have grown by "just" some six per cent over the same period.
