Friday, August 31, 2007

Beckham Bends

David Beckham, football superstar, has a sprained right knee and looks all set to miss the rest of the season of L.A.Galaxy who will be then looking at another extended spell without him.Beckham, whose five-year contract guarantees him an annual salary of $6.5million came here with an already injured left ankle.He must be hoping to make soccer a major American sport but that dream may just elude him due to his repeated injuries and lacklustre performance.

Meanwhile,Beckham and his wife,Victoria 'Posh Spice'can glide around town Hollywood together,ripping up the entertainment world. She will be appearing on TV this fall, playing herself on an episode of the ABC comedy 'Ugly Betty'.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Men's room signals!

The Republicans are getting the carpet pulled out from under their feet,literally. The latest offender to hit their scandal sheet is Idaho Senator Larry Craig who solicited sex from *gasp* an undercover cop (who was ironically investigating public restroom gay sexual activities) in an airport bathroom stall with shoe-touches and hand signals!
Youtube promptly has a video of Craig's guide to men's room signals! Tsk!Tsk!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

CNN interviews Hamas Leader

Hamas is now ruling in Gaza strip after a showdown with Fatah,the Palestinian political party which runs the West Bank. Hamas' leader, Khaled Meshaal lives in hiding in Damascus, Syria. CNN correspondents interviewed him in his secret hideout .


Meshaal is a complicated, calculating man. To his people, he is seen as a humanitarian and as the leader of Hamas. To Israel, the United States and a list of other nations, he is seen as a terrorist.

Next month will mark the 10-year anniversary of an assassination attempt on Meshaal's life by the Israeli intelligence organization Mossad.

While Meshaal was living in Jordan in 1997, Mossad agents breached the building in which he was sleeping. They injected poison into his ear. The Jordanian authorities quickly discovered what had happened and through pressure from both the Jordanian king and some U.S. officials, Israel eventually provided Meshaal with the antidote he needed to survive.

"I am 51 years old, and the past 10 years have been a gift from above," he told CNN.



Is the next 'war on terror' drawing near?

Is the Bush/Cheney administration gearing up for a strike on Iran?
The administration has, just this month,targeted Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard,a sovereign nation's standing army numbering in hundreds of thousands, on the terrorism list. When you want a war that badly, you'll pretty much do or say anything to get it. Adding to their warcries is the mainstream media here which seems to be cheering them more into this pre-emptive strike. To make matters worse, Iran is aggressively posturing itself and making pugnacious noises.

The delusional neoconservative thinking that still guides White House policy concludes that an attack on Iran would lead to the fall of the clerics and the rise of a more friendly Iran. To maintain a precarious balance of position in the Middle East,Bush is all set to sell $20 billion in high-tech military equipment to Saudi Arabia and has sanctioned $3 billion in aid to Israel.

The Reps are conveniently brushing aside the findings of The National Intelligence Estimate which has, in its study, concluded that though Iran is building nuclear power stations (it has the legal right to do so under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,which is endorsed by both the United States and Iran),it could not acquire a nuclear weapon until early to mid-next decade. But the war cheerleaders and the powers that be are not ready to give credence to the report. Bush has now stated that Iran’s pursuit of the atomic bomb could lead to a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East, and promised to confront Tehran “before it is too late”.This is a repeat of the same lies about weapons of mass destruction that he used to justify invading Iraq.

According to a study made by the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy and published by the Rawstory the US has made military preparations to destroy Iran’s WMD, nuclear energy, regime, armed forces, state apparatus and economic infrastructure within days if not hours of President George Bush giving the order

Rationality and common sense have not exactly been the strong points of this administration which is yet to come out of its earlier reckless adventure in Iraq. Another massive war exercise in Iran will push America and the world into a horrific slideback in every way.Scary.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Foam on the Pacific Coast

Strange natural events keep happening with more frightening regularity these days. The latest freak display is the foaming up of the Pacific ocean along the shoreline north of Sydney which was transformed into what reporters are calling ‘The Cappuccino Coast’which stretched for 30 miles. This phenomenon has not been seen at the beach for more than three decades.

According to the Daily Mail:
The foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed.

All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles.

These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore.

As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam.

Monday, August 27, 2007

World's first automated restaurant

In Nuremberg, Germany, the world's first automated restaurant has opened earlier this month. There are no waiters attending to the tables in Bistro's Baggers. Customers order their meals using a touch-screen system that is placed at each table, and the entire restaurant is networked via a computer system. Each table has been connected by metal rails to the kitchen and dishes glide along the rails to customers, propelled by gravity.


Automation may have its advantages and benefits of economies of cost. That said, one may miss the human element in such clinical restaurant dining.

Priceless Egyptian Whale Fossil destroyed

A fossilised whale lying for millions of years in the Egyptian desert has been destroyed by negligent diplomats of an unknown European country driving SUVs.The damage is estimated at more than 10 million dollars!

Insensitive vandals.


Two cars drove into the protected area on Friday and then refused to stop when asked to do so by wardens who nevertheless got the vehicles' registration numbers which the source said were from "a European country."

The site, known as Wadi Hitan (Whale Valley), was home to whales around 40 million years ago when the area was ocean. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to hundreds of whale fossils.



According to UNESCO, Wadi Al-Hitan is the most important site in the world to demonstrate one of the iconic changes that make up the record of life on Earth: the evolution of the whales. It portrays vividly their form and mode of life during their transition from land animals to a marine existence.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Toyota Prius, the Green Machine

Toyota Prius has been adjudged as the "Green Machine" of the year by the judges at evecars.com. The female judges also picked the Volkswagen Eos as the 2007 Car of The Year in what evecars says is the "first ever women's car awards judged by women for women." Via
Apple co-founder Steve "the Woz" Wozniak got a $700 ticket for going 105 MPH in a Prius back on March 28th. This breaks the myth that hybrids are not speed-worthy :))

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Human Rights violations in Iran

Lashings and executions seem to be commonplace in Iran which is grossly violating human rights in the name of enforcement of strict morality laws laid down by the Koran. According to Human Rights organisation,respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006 and it holds the deplorable distinction of leading the world in juvenile executions.



But there is hope as yet. It is learnt that resistance amongst the people of Iran against the hard line religious regime is gaining momentum.
Via: Dailymail

Friday, August 24, 2007

Doubting ThomasTheresa

Mother Teresa is being fast tracked on her way to sainthood and anything said against her is almost unthinkable.Therefore,it is shocking to hear that she had serious doubts about her faith to the point where she stopped praying and feared being labelled as a hypocrite.According to CBS News a collection of her letters written to superiors, friends and confessors have been compiled and are to be released in the form of a book. These reveal a side of her that will shock the world about the Nobel Peace Prize recipient and her inner struggle with her faith.


"Where is my faith?" she wrote. "Even deep down… there is nothing but emptiness and darkness... If there be God — please forgive me."
"What do I labor for?" she asked in one letter. "If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true."



This just goes to show that even the so called super human messengers of God have their own inner doubts.

Bed side table

I found this funny but useful side table which doubles up as a fighting gizmo on treehugger.

Hope we will never get to use it but its not a bad idea to have a club and shield to give you a good fighting chance.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Here now, Gone where???


Talking of bare chested presidents, might as well mention Nicholas Sarkozy, the French President (who was on holiday recently in the US). His flabby love-handles mysteriously disappear in the picture published by the weekly magazine Paris Match but was around in the pictures published by Reuters.No doubt the importance of presenting physically fit appearances of Presidents has taken on a whole new level now :).

Putin flexes his muscles!

Russian Prez Vladimir Putin stripped off his shirt for the cameras while on holiday with Prince Albert II of Monaco in the Siberian mountains last week.

Popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday published a huge color photo of their barechested president with the headline: "Be Like Putin." Also published is a guide showing exactly what exercises were required to build up abs like that of the Russian leader!

Female admirers,Russian gay chat rooms and blogs were particularly intrigued by the photos of the Presidential torso ...

Fox Attacks Iran now

Brave New Films have released the latest video in their Fox Attacks series.If you wish to sign an open letter to the networks not to follow Fox's war drumbeats,you may do so here



Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A Q Khan 'elected' Pakistan's 'President'

The infamous and disgraced scientist,Dr. Abdul Qadar Khan,father of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal,who ran an arms bazaar that spread nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, seems to be a highly popular man in Pakistan. He has been 'elected' as 'President'of Pakistan in a mock poll there. Many Pakistanis revere Dr. Khan as a national hero for creating the country’s nuclear weapons. Precisely the attitude that India has to be on guard about.



Abdul Qader Khan, the detained scientist who pioneered Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, was "elected" the country's president, defeating the incumbent, Pervez Musharraf, in a mock poll held by lawyers.

Musharraf received only one vote and Khan, whom he has placed under detention since January 2004, got 2,103 votes in the "presidential referendum" organised by the Save Judiciary Committee of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA).

Monday, August 20, 2007

X-Seed 4000, the tallest building on paper!

This futuristically designed building-if ever it comes into existence-will dwarf every other tallest building in the world. The X-Seed 4000,looking like Mt.Fuji and exceeding its height, is proposed to be built as a self-contained city in the Tokyo harbor, powered mainly by solar energy. It would measure an impossibly unthinkable height of 13123 feet with a ground area footprint of 6 sq.kms. It would contain 800 floors and house nearly one million inhabitants and become a city unto itself. Estimated cost of construction- a whopping $US 900 billion.



Designed by Taisei Construction as an “intelligent building,” the super futuristical building would maintain light, temperature, and air pressure in response to changing external weather conditions.

An interesting thing to ponder would be about the viability of transportation between the floors and around the building width. There would have to be a massive number of elevators. Parking would be a logistical nightmare. Even waste treatment has to be thought of and planned for elaborately.



There's an interesting show on discovery site which says just how it is possible to build such a monstrosity.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

More bigotry

Some insightful gems from this saudi cleric aired on Iqra TV who shows zero tolerance for everything non-Islamic (which again is nothing new with the whole of their cult)and believes that the Islamic way of life is the only “right way” any society should live. Poor illusionary sod! He is so proud of being stupid :)).
Clicking on the image will take you to Memri TV

saudi cleric rantings

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Bill Gates promoting Linux?!

I imagine this to be a photoshopped image. Or maybe Bill wishes to join the crowd rather than beat it!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

What's Illegal to say in the US?

For more dumb and crazy laws in the US,you can see this website. Funny!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Masdar - Carbon free city

The world's first carbon-free city will be built in Abu Dhabi,the capital and the oil-rich emirate of the UAE.

By 2009, Abu Dhabi hopes to complete the construction of Masdar, a 3.7 mile enclosed city devoid of carbon and cars. To produce energy, the city will rely on a combination of wind, solar and geothermal energy.

According to their website, Masdar is “a global cooperative platform for open engagement in the search for solutions to some of mankind's most pressing issues: energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development.”

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Crumbling American Infrastructure

The dramatic collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minnesota a fortnight back,was,in some ways,more of a shock and a wakeup call to look into the huge decaying infrastructure of the country. America's infrastructure has an overall grade of D – or nearly failing – including roads, bridges, drinking water systems and other public works. Estimates are that it would take nearly $190 billion to fix just the country's failing bridges over the next two decades.The fixing of other infrastructure can take billions more.

According to a nytimes op-ed its difficult to replace decades old structural stuff as they are interconnected to a lot of other support systems. The more pressing issue is the availability of huge funds for the required changes and repairs.This would put the Federal Government into a huge debt and leave it bankrupt.

With the impending collapse of the housing market and of global credit markets, there are clear signs that the country is heading into another Great Depression. However,it may be able to pull out of it by injecting money into the economy in the form of massive public investment in infrastructure. But instead of borrowing the money from banks,leaving it massively in debt, the government should try creating debt and interest-free money with accounting entries and make the excess money generated to produce more goods and services just as Germany did in the decade following the first world war.

Whatever remedial measures that may be adopted, the problems cannot be easily wished away for a long time to come.


Monday, August 13, 2007

Greyjing Olympics!

Pollution could hinder Olympics in Beijing next year. Though China is trying to battle the scourge of pollution, it may not be possible to reduce the already high levels of polluted air in Beijing where the Olympics are scheduled to be held.The perma-haze in Beijing is certain to put a dampner on the Chinese enthusiasm because the Olympic Committee may not allow certain events to take place. According to the Wall Street Journal, some of the games may have to be rescheduled or even postponed.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Arctic Thaw

Soot or carbon black is the natural and industrial ash like substance. It has now been proved that soot emissions from U.S. coal burning may have significantly contributed and been a primary culprit for the fast melt-down of the arctic ice sheet. According to new research, an eight-fold increase in soot in the Arctic snow had taken place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Soot reduces the reflectivity of snow and ice allowing the surface to absorb more energy from the sun.

When the United States switched to oil and gas and instituted air pollution controls, the amount of soot falling in the Arctic dropped substantially. However, soot is still a factor in Arctic warming because of coal emissions from the booming economies of Asia.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Missing Iraqi Weapons!

The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005.The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, and at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the Pentagon has admitted that the weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures.
Jon Stewart calls it 'Profound Incompetence'. Sure it is!



Space Hotel -Around the world in 80 days minutes

The most expensive hotel is truly out of this world.The Galactic Suite space hotel is expected to open for business in orbit in 2012. A three-night stay 300 miles in orbit will be available to anyone with 3 million euros ($4.15 million).The hotel will orbit the earth every 80 minutes.The package includes shuttle trips to and fro plus an 18-week training program on a Caribbean island.


During their stay guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.The spa room will have bubbles of water which will float around. Bathrooms will be in zero gravity.


The hotel starts taking reservations in 2008.To make a reservation, send an e-mail to reservations@galacticsuite.com :-D.


Source:Reuters

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Thursday, August 9, 2007

Virgin America takes to the skies

Virgin Air has finally come to the US and is Virgin America here. It launched its inaugural flight yesterday from New York City's JFK airport and Los Angeles to San Francisco.The cool thing about this is its value add-ons that distinguishes itself from the competion of the saturated but drab domestic airline market.

Apart from full USB and electrical power connections at every seat, both in first class and economy,the airline will activate ethernet ports at every seat so one can surf the Web at 35,000 feet. Then there is the satellite TV from Dish network,besides streaming live TV,streaming satellite radio, audio books, an MP3 library with 3,000 tracks and 25 pay-per-view movies.

And lastly,as an aside, you can send a text message to a co-passenger. As Chairman and ladies' man,Richard Branson,puts it"you can introduce yourself to a pretty lady sitting nearby with this texting". Aha, this will surely be a crowd-puller if not anything else!

How-to save on gas mileage

I have my doubts about Acetone being good in the long run.


Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Is Musharraf going to declare an Emergency in Pakistan?

Pakistan, in recent times, has been under the eye of a storm and President Musharraf is trying very hard to play his game of chinese checkers balancing the increasing militants in his home turf and appeasing the Bush Government on his government's anti-terrorism stand. He was to attend a 'peace jirga' with tribal and other leaders in Afganistan today but didnt. The possible reason could be an imminent declaration of emergency by him in Pakistan.
The Guardian says that the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is not ruling out imposing a state of emergency because of "external and internal threats" to Pakistan and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.
Very likely, I would say considering elections are slated to take place soon and there are rumors regarding the return of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Hollywood comes knocking at Bollywood's doors

Hollywood is testing the waters of Indian Bollywood industry. Sony Pictures have now entered into the chaotic fray of Indian cinema to churn out made in India potboilers. To be a success, Indian films have to run the gamut of emotions. These will have to have the typical potpourri of song and dances, fight scenes, good vs bad guys,tear-jerker dramas, atleast one 'item' song and dance (where the heroine or some other female actor dances lewdly to the tune of raunchy music with guys salivating over her suggestive movements)and lastly a climactic scene where the good wins over the bad and the goons are all routed out or the cops come and arrest the criminals with a flourish. Ofcourse, the trend is a-changing these days with some slick crime thrillers or movies depicting the corrupt political establishment with some surprise endings. But a majority of bollywood movies are of the spicy mix genres with a little bit of everything thrown in to please the varied crowds.

According to IHT,Walt Disney also has partnered with an Indian studio, Yash Raj Films, to make animated movies for Indians.And Warner Brothers is developing two Bollywood projects, including one song-and-dance smorgasbord. The studio plans three to six movies a year in the coming years, all with Indian talent.

"We're not coming to change anything," Fox said.That is Hollywood's Indian mantra.

It remains to be seen how well the Indian audience will lap up movies made by Hollywood productions who have wisely decided to just join in and flow with the tide and not upset the bollywood applecart with their hollywood formulas.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Fake Steve Jobs cover blown!

The cat is out of the bag! Readers may want to read my previous article Fake Steve Jobs where I pointed out to a blog by an anonymous blogger calling himself the fake Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. Now, his cover has been blown-admittedly by his own admission-and he is identfied as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine!

Mr. Lyons said writing as Fake Steve became addictive. He developed a unique lexicon and catalog of insults for the characters. Bill Gates is Beastmaster, and Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, is Squirrel Boy.

The real Mr.Steve Jobs did not seem interested when told the identity of his online fake double.

Novel Publishing Strategy

Ah!The question that was haunting me has finally been solved. I have read quite a few books co-authored by Robert Ludlum-who has been gone for a long time now- and Ian Fleming (also dead since long) and some living authors like James Patterson. I have always been keen on knowing the pattern of the business model behind this kind of publishing where one author is almost a brand name but the other one is an obsure author. The fine print in the books always mention that the 'estate' of the author (in cases where the main writer is no more) handled the publishing with the living co-author.

According to the New York Times,it is the posthumous publishing franchise model.Kind of like an author-double. But if the books are good (from my readings they undoubtedly are)its a nice way of keeping the reader base happy with the author and the co-authors on an eternally profitable publishing mode.


Twelve Ludlum books have been released since his death, with a 13th due out in September. The business is deployed now as a kind of film studio, presenting books completed by others or new ones written using his name.


Saturday, August 4, 2007

Latest Indian Land Scam

A fleet of 50 luxury cars with VIP number plates,10 fancy bikes-also with fancy number plates, seven Kilograms of gold, 5500 plots (yes, you read right- 5500 sites)illegally acquired and sold at exorbitant prices and 1.7 million in cash at his residence. Who is the lucky owner of this cache of wealth? Its one Ashok Malhotra, a non-entity as far as ordinary Indians are concerned and now absconding from the law after a probe has been made into a massive land scam. Astounding as it may sound,he was running only a small tea stall in the Delhi Assembly but with the help of the Delhi Development Authority corrupt officials managed to get all those sites, which were meant to be distributed among displaced slum dwellers,allotted to himself under fictitious names and sell it later at astronomical sums.Some guy,this!

He is rumored to have a lot of political connections (goes without saying that anyone in India having that much of ill-gotten wealth has to have immense political, administrative and judicial clout)including the Chief Minister of Delhi. No surprise here!

Do your math. If an ordinary man selling small eats and tea can have so many billions,then the riches of the Indian politicians-who are known for their corrupt practices- must be of stratospheric proportions.

Blog Policing

One of my readers commented yesterday that,soon,I might have a price put on my head. This was a comment on my post about the Origins of the New Testament. Many bloggers do tread on people's sentiments but cliched as it may sound,progress of thought can happen only if uncomfortable truths are dug out and society slowly adjusts itself to new ways of thinking.This cannot happen overnight given the policy of appeasement and politically correct statements that we are oblighed to make many a time. But the change will happen slowly and I am happy contributing to it in my own small way.

To a large extent, this is possible in countries where individual liberty is respected and not in totalitarian states or countries which repress individual freedom with an iron hand. Recently, Malaysia passed a law under which a blogger could end up being prosecuted as a terrorist if he or she posts articles insulting their Supreme Leader or Islam; with the suspect being detained indefinitely, without being charged or put on trial. Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, running one of Malaysia's most popular political websites, Malaysia Today, turned himself in to police last week, to answer allegations that he had mocked Islam and threatened racial harmony.

If they had such draconian laws in the U.S curbing the freedom of the written word,the cops would be never-endingly busy questioning every other blogger and would not have enough time on their hands to do their policing.Tsk!

Friday, August 3, 2007

Origins of the New Testament

The New Testament is supposedly not historical at all.
According to this very educative article,which debunks the entire theological theories which have been propounded for more than 14 centuries,the Emperor Constantine (Custennyn or Custennin)who lived in the fourth century A.D. authorised the compilation of the New Testament.

As per records, the first ecclesiastical gathering in history was summoned by Constantine and is today known as the Council of Nicaea.The intellectual climate prevailing at the time was woefully puerile.It was that infantile body of men who were responsible for the commencement of a new religion and the theological creation of Jesus Christ.It was at that assembly, and with so many cults represented, that a total of 318 "bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes and exorcists" gathered to debate and decide upon a unified belief system that encompassed only one god.

When the heated debates which went on for nearly one and a half years did not agree upon one god (among the 53 chosen), Constantine ultimately decided upon a new god for them. To involve British factions (since he was of British origin), he ruled that the name of the great Druid god, Hesus, be joined with the Eastern Saviour-god, Krishna (Krishna is Sanskrit for Christ), and thus Hesus Krishna would be the official name of the new Roman god.And because there was no letter "J" in alphabets until around the ninth century, the name subsequently evolved into "Jesus Christ".
Constantine then instructed his deputy to organise the compilation of a uniform collection of new writings developed from primary aspects of the religious texts submitted at the council which collectively came to be known as the Gospels.These compilations went on to become the New Testament.

Constantine died in 337 and his outgrowth of many now-called pagan beliefs into a new religious system brought many converts. Later Church writers made him "the great champion of Christianity" which he gave "legal status as the religion of the Roman Empire"

The Church itself admits that it does not know who wrote its Gospels and Epistles, confessing that all 27 New Testament writings began life anonymously.To sum it up,Christianity is an adaptation of Mithraism welded with the Druidic principles of the Culdees, some Egyptian elements (the pre-Christian Book of Revelation was originally called The Mysteries of Osiris and Isis), Greek philosophy and various aspects of Hinduism.

Gorbachev journeys from Ex-President to Model

Mikhail Gorbachev,former Soviet leader, is the new spokesmodel,besides others like Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, for Louis Vuitton, the French luxury bag maker.He is featured in this shot in a car sitting next to a Vuitton bag passing by the Berlin Wall. Looks kind of stiff to me and doesnt seem to fit into the role. But high profile buyers may just love that snooty look and buy up... who knows!

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Torturous Libyan ordeal

Held in incarceration for eight long years and having undergone untold suffering and torture,freed Palestinian doctor (who alongwith five Bulgarian nurses was on death row -on trumped-up charges that they infected hundreds of children with HIV- and finally released from prison after reported payments of huge sums of money as ransom which is rumoured to have come from a previously secret player in these negotiations, the government of Qatar)recounts his moving tale of horror spanning those horrific years.

Muammar Gaddafi(he of the different spellings!)President of Libya,did not expect a Presidential pardon would await the nurses and the doctor the instant they landed in Bulgaria. His government has asked Interpol to bring back the six to serve their sentences in Libya.Ha!
The doctor's agonising ordeal by Gaddafi's thugs is detailed in this article of German News magazine, Der Spiegel

Canada pooh-poohs Russian Arctic Claims

Okay! Now we are seeing some muscle flexing. Canadian Foreign Minister says "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'." Exactly! Please dont sit quiet letting the Kremlin do as they please.


Canada's Conservative government is vowing to assert sovereignty over its Arctic lands and waterways. Last month Ottawa said it would build up to eight patrol ships designed to operate in the frozen region, which is believed to hold huge untapped oil and gas reserves.


Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Zimbabwe hurtling down towards total economic collapse

Phew! Its a wonder that people are still living in Zimbabwe. Official inflation rate is 4500% and there is 80% unemployment. The stores are empty and people just cannot afford even the minimum healthcare.There is a tsunami of refugees entering South Africa from here. The latest news from the economically beleaguered country is the minting of the new 200,000 Zim dollar which can buy only one kilogram of sugar!
Meanwhile, President Mugabe is still sitting unperturbed with his highfalutin claims that other countries (who are only trying to help) are intefering in his country's affairs.