Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Soap Opera that has Paris Abuzz

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Photo of Nicolas Sarkozy with his wife, Cecilia, courtesy of Google Images (France)
BBC: Will she or won't she? Paris is abuzz with the question, as voters wonder whether Cecilia Sarkozy will be a full-time First Lady or not, as her husband Nicolas assumes power at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday.

Other nations have soap operas to keep them entertained. France has its own real-life political drama, which has so far kept millions tuned in - from the gripping episodes during the long-term feud between Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, and his former mentor, the outgoing President Jacques Chirac, to the recent cliff-hanger of the sporadic absences of Cecilia from her ambitious husband's side. Sarkozy soap opera grips Paris (more) By Caroline Wyatt

Mark Alexander
The Saudi Executioner’s Sword Reaches as Far as Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: WASHINGTON — For the past four months, home for Mohamed Kohail has been a filthy prison cell in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he says he has been pushed, slapped and abused, and forced into signing a confession for a murder he did not commit.

In a country where capital punishment by beheading is still the law of the land, the 22-year-old Canadian citizen says he fears the worst from the Saudi judicial system, which has accused him of killing a Syrian youth in a vicious schoolyard brawl. His 16-year-old brother also is being held in relation to the death.

“It's going to be death for now,” Mr. Kohail told The Globe and Mail Monday in an extraordinary interview on a friend's cellphone from inside the prison. “That is what the investigators asked from the court.”

“I'm afraid of everything,” he continued in accented English, saying he never wanted to return to Saudi Arabia after spending five years in Canada. “I really want to go back to Canada now. I like everything in Canada.” Canadians face beheading in Saudi Arabia (more) By Alan Freeman

Mark Alexander
”Beheading Spree”

KUWAIT TIMES: RIYADH: Four Saudis were beheaded by the sword yesterday after being convicted of rape and murder, while an Iraqi and a Pakistani nationals were executed for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said. The six beheadings-one of the highest numbers of executions in one day-brought to 72 the number of executions announced by the Saudi authorities this year, almost double the figure in 2006. Saudi Arabia on beheading spree (more)
Mark Alexander
David Hockney on Why He Will Always Be Devoted to Cigarettes

GUARDIAN UNLIMITED: On July 1 2007, the most grotesque piece of social engineering will begin in England: the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, imposed easily by a political and media elite. They think it will lead to healthier people and a cleaner atmosphere. They believe they can change people easily. The science of marketing has been absorbed by them and they think they can control everybody. I don't think they can. People will stay at home and do drugs instead - legal and illegal.

I have lived in California for a number of years. They started smoking bans, but they didn't affect smokers that much. In California you move around in your own private space. If one goes to a public space, say the opera or Disney Hall, then because the climate is ideal the smoker can just step outside, at all times of the year. Many restaurants have gardens and the bans have never really bothered me. But something else has happened in California since the bans came in, unreported by the media, and it took me a while to notice because I have spent the past seven years working in England.

The amount of drugs advertised on television tells me what has replaced tobacco (although 20% still smoke): painkillers, Prozac and antidepressants, mostly prescription drugs - you just tell the doctor what you need. When prescription drugs are advertised in the press there is always a lot of small print listing side effects, and on television you get a speedy talking voice listing the side effects. You perhaps hear one word in four - paralysis, diarrhoea, death, headaches. I expect it all to come here. Drugs (legal and illegal) are the world's largest business, and one can understand why, since they make us feel better. ’I smoke for my mental health’ (more)

Mark Alexander
Attentats d’al-Qaida planifié contre plusieurs installations pétrolières du Golfe persique

LE FIGARO: Arrêtés il y a un an, quatre membres du groupe terroriste ont avoué avoir planifié des attentats contre plusieurs installations pétrolières du Golfe persique. Terrorisme : al-Qaida voulait viser l’Arabie Saoudite (encore)

Mark Alexander
The Evangelical Divide on Global Warming

BBC: BBC Washington correspondent Matt Frei goes to Virginia to take a look at how the issue of climate change is dividing America's evangelical movement.

Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is one of the biggest evangelical colleges in the world.

With some 5,000 students, it is the creation of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, one of America's most influential Christian leaders.
The technology used here is modern - it uses the latest internet gimmicks and sermons are podcast - but the message is less so.

"The jury is still out on global warming," says the Rev Falwell, in a sermon broadcast on the internet in February this year.

"Despite all the hype by liberal politicians, the media, Hollywood and so forth, it is not yet proven by any means that greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of global warming."

His word is taken as gospel by the university's students. Evangelicals split on global warming (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: US Christians split on climate

BBC: US evangelist Gerry Falwall dies

Mark Alexander
Venezuela Comes Under Socialism’s Deadly Grip

BBC: Private investors and the political opposition hate it, President Hugo Chavez's supporters love it. A whirlwind of nationalisations and threats to private companies is changing Venezuela's economic climate and threatens to widen a tense social divide.

Mr Chavez is stepping up his campaign to turn Venezuela into a socialist state.

He is taking more control of the country's assets and warning companies that do not agree with his vision that he will take them over. Nationalisation sweeps Venezuela (more)

Mark Alexander
Paul Wolfowitz could well stand down

TIMESONLINE: World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, may finally stand down after he broke rules by awarding his girlfriend a pay rise

Paul Wolfowitz, the embattled president of the World Bank, will today learn whether he has a future at the institution after a panel of executives found he had violated his contract when he awarded his girlfriend with a pay rise. Guilty Wolfowitz to face World Bank Board (more)

BBC: Wolfowitz ‘broke World Bank laws’
SPIEGELONLINE: Für Bushs langjährigen Wegbegleiter Paul Wolfowitz wird es jetzt eng: Nach dem Ethikrat hat auch der Untersuchungsausschuss der Weltbank sein Verhalten verurteilt. Die üppige Gehaltserhöhung für seine Freundin habe gegen die Regeln der Institution verstoßen.

Washington - Ein vom Weltbank-Direktorium eingesetzter Untersuchungsausschuss kam in seinem gestern in Washington veröffentlichten Bericht zu dem Ergebnis, dass Wolfowitz mit der Gehaltserhöhung gegen die Regeln der Institution verstoßen habe. Zugleich empfahl er dem Direktorium zu prüfen, ob Wolfowitz unter diesen Umständen die Weltbank weiter führen könne. Das Direktorium wollte heute Abend zu Beratungen zusammentreten und dabei auch Wolfowitz anhören. Zweiter Schuldspruch für Wolfowitz (mehr)

FAZ: Weltbank grübelt über Wolfowitz

LEMONDE: Un nouveau rapport remet en cause la capacité de M. Wolfowitz à diriger la Banque mondiale
Mark Alexander
Sarkozy: Die letzte Hoffnung für die Randalierer Frankreichs

WELTONLINE: Brennende Autos, fliegende Steine und Schlägereien. Die Revolte der Pariser Jugend im vergangen Jahr hat das Land erschüttert. Warum gerade Luxus-Yacht-Urlauber und Hardliner Nicolas Sarkozy als neuer Präsident die einzige Hoffnung dieser Kinder ist.

Wahlen in Europa lösen heutzutage ebenso viel Langeweile aus, wie sie tiefe Leidenschaften aufwühlen. Sie sind ein notwendiges Übel, das man am besten schnell hinter sich bringt, wie eine chronische Krankheit, für die es keine Heilung gibt; sie sind das Mittel, durch das Macht – eigentlich eher Amtsgewalt – von einem misstrauisch beäugten Teil der politischen Klasse auf einen anderen übergeht. Niemand erwartet ernsthaft, dass viel daraus folgt, sei es im Guten oder Bösen; wie auch immer das Ergebnis ausfällt, wird das Staatsschiff gemächlich weiter in dieselbe Richtung segeln, sogar dann auch, wenn in dieser Richtung die Klippen liegen.

Die Wahlen in Frankreich waren anders. Wochenlang gaben sie Gesprächsstoff in den meisten Familien ab. In Nicolas Sarkozy – genannt Sarko – gab es wenigstens einen Kandidaten, der liebens- oder hassenswert erschien. Obwohl er sein ganzes Erwachsenenleben lang Politiker war, so dass er eher ein Insider als ein Außenseiter ist, zieht Sarko die Franzosen an (und stößt sie zugleich ab), weil er aus anderem Holz geschnitzt zu sein scheint als jene Figuren von olympischem Format, die vor ihm das Präsidentenamt der Fünften Republik innehatten. Er ist ein kleiner Mann, ein Hansdampf voller Energie, deutlich nicht das Produkt von Privilegien, sondern seiner eigenen Entschlossenheit, seines Ehrgeizes, seiner harten Arbeit und seines Talents. Monsieur Sarkozy und der Pöbel (mehr)

Mark Alexander
Uran-Anreicherung in Iran weiter voran als wir uns vorsgestellt haben

SPIEGELONLINE: Die Internationale Atomenergiebehörde schlägt Alarm: Iran habe größere Fortschritte in der Uran-Anreicherung erzielt als bisher vermutet, berichtet IAEA-Chef ElBaradei. In Washington macht sich Nervosität breit.

Washington - "Wir glauben, dass sie die Anreicherung im Wesentlichen verstanden haben", zitierte die "New York Times" den Chef der Internationale Atomenergiebehörde (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei. "Ab jetzt müssen sie das Wissen nur noch perfektionieren. Das werden die Leute nicht hören wollen, aber es ist eine Tatsache." Iran kommt mit Uran-Anreicherung schneller voran als vermutet (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Monday, May 14, 2007

Bandar Bush and All That



Mark Alexander
Iran: Have a sex change on us!



Mark Alexander
Craggers Want to Plunge Our World into Darkness

BBC: Would you switch everything off and rely on natural light to save the planet? It's the only answer for the families going to extreme measures to cut emissions. 8am: Shower. Save the water. Save the planet (more) By Robert Greenall (Is this man trying to live up to his name?)

Mark Alexander
”Le Pakistan est plongé dans une crise”

LE MONDE - OPINION: Le Pakistan est plongé dans une crise d'une gravité dont il est nécessaire de prendre toute la mesure. Car on aurait bien tort de réduire les scènes d'affrontements sanglants (41 morts) dont la capitale économique du pays, Karachi, a été le théâtre ce week-end à un simple "folklore" politique d'une région rituellement secouée de troubles ethniques ou religieux.

Ces violences marquent un tournant inquiétant. Elles signent la fin d'une époque, celle où le général Musharraf, arrivé au pouvoir en 1999 par un putsch, avait pu diriger le Pakistan sans trop de heurts. Le chef de l'Etat doit désormais faire face à un mouvement de contestation d'une ampleur sans précédent. Ce défi est lourd de périls pour la cohésion du pays autant que pour la stabilité régionale. Le Pakistan en danger (encore)

Mark Alexander
Décapitations en Arabie Saoudite

LE MONDE: Quatre Saoudiens, un Irakien et un Pakistanais, reconnus coupables de meurtre ou de trafic de drogue, ont été décapités au sabre lundi en Arabie saoudite, a annoncé le ministère de l'Intérieur.

Dakhil Nakhli, Mohammad Sahli ainsi que Fahd et et Raëd Lahibi, des Saoudiens, ont été condamnés à mort pour le viol et le meurtre d'un adolescent, Fahd Harbi, a précisé le ministère dans un communiqué. Six décapitations lundi en Arabie: 4 Saoudiens, un Irakien et un Pakistanais (encore)

Mark Alexander
Ahmadinejad Calls for End to Presence of US Troops in Gulf

KUWAIT TIMES: ABU DHABI: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for an end to the presence of US troops in the Gulf during a visit to the US-allied United Arab Emirates yesterday, an Iranian news agency reported. "With each other's help, we can turn the Persian Gulf to the gulf of peace and friendship," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan. "We all wish that foreign troops would leave the region and give a chance to countries in the region to establish security in the region themselves," Mehr quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the start of his two-day visit, the first to the Gulf Arab country by an Iranian head of state. Ahmadinejad calls for US forces to quit Gulf (more)

ARAB NEWS: We Can Turn Gulf into Bastion of Peace, says Ahmadinejad

Mark Alexander
Bald wird Männer Röcke tragen müssen!

WELTONLINE: Der Kommissar für Soziales, Vladimir Spidla, hat Europas Unternehmen und Männer zum Umdenken aufgefordert. "Man muss ganz klar sagen: Die Männer müssen mehr Aufgaben in der Familie übernehmen. " Doch er und seine Kollegen stellen auch fest, wer Babypause macht, riskiert seine Karriere. EU-Minister rufen Männer zur Hausarbeit (mehr)

Mark Alexander
Western Governments’ Sick Obsession with Banning Everything

Not only do we have the threat of our lifestyles being changed out of all recognition by Muslims determined to continue their jihad against the free world, but we also have another form of jihad to contend with these days: the jihad being waged by the health Nazis! Health Nazis ,oh and I forgot the 'safety campaigners', are all obsessed with everything from smoking to consuming alcohol and disciplining your children. (It’s psychologically bad for them, you see.)

This morning, in the Daily Mail, it has been reported that these same health freaks, these same health Nazis now want to ban drivers from smoking in their cars! Where will it all end?

Don’t let these freaks take our rights away from us like this! All these bans are the thin edge of the wedge. Today, it's smoking. What will it be tomorrow? Let the free world remain free! Let people make their own choices! Let people live their lives! Live and let live! - ©Mark Alexander

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Photo of smoker courtesy of the DAILY MAIL
DAILY MAIL: Road safety campaigners are urging the Government to ban smoking at the wheel.

Drivers caught lighting up would be given a £60 fine and three penalty points added to their licence under plans put forward by the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association, which represents councils across the UK.

From July 1, smokers in England will be banned from lighting up in enclosed public places and at work. The ban is already in place in the rest of the UK.

This means that smokers who drive company vehicles will not be allowed to light up while driving, even if there is no one else in the car. Plea to ban drivers from smoking (more)

FOREST: SMOKE, LIES AND THE NANNY STATE By Joe Jackson

FREEDOM TO CHOOSE: Pro Libertate

Mark Alexander
Britain’s Appeasement of Terror

MELANIE PHILLIPS: The ending of the Al Qaeda fertiliser bomb plot trial has posed crucial questions about the competence of MI5. In particular, the assurances we were given after the 7/7 bombings, that the perpetrators had been unknown to the security service, have been shown to be utterly false.

Disturbing as that is by itself, the case also raises yet more pressing questions about whether Britain is even now acting effectively enough against the threat to this country from Islamist terrorism.

The fact is that Al Qaeda now sees Britain as both its principal target and its principal recruiting ground. By its own admission, MI5 is monitoring no fewer than 200 terrorist networks, 1,600 identified individual terrorists and 30 known terrorist plots. It says British Muslims are being indoctrinated with horrifying speed, and more terrorists are being recruited every day. When will the British stop appeasing terror? (more)

Mark Alexander
Haleh Esfandiari Detained by Iran

BBC: Iran's foreign ministry has confirmed that the government has detained a leading Iranian-American academic.

Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the arrest of Haleh Esfandiari was lawful and she would be treated like other Iranian nationals.

Ms Esfandiari, one of Washington's best known Iran experts, was visiting Tehran to see her 93-year-old mother.

The incident comes at a time of continuing tension between the United States and Iran.

"It is natural if there is any problem, it will be handled by authorities," said the spokesman.

Iran does not recognise dual nationalities.

Iran admits detaining US academic (more)

Mark Alexander