Archive for January, 2009
‘Jimmy Carter’ tag has Obama wincing
LESS than two weeks into his administration, President Barack Obama is being portrayed by opponents as a new Jimmy Carter – weak at home and naive abroad – in an attempt to dim his post-election glow and ensure that he serves only one term. The charge has stung because it was made privately by Hillary Clinton supporters during a hard-fought primary campaign and plays to fears about Obama’s inexperience. He is engaged in early trials of strength with Republicans in Washington and critics of the United States around the world – not least Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president. Obama faces battles to talk Wall Street into giving up its addiction to large bonuses and US banks to start… Continue Reading
Barclays in South Africa currency probe
BARCLAYS has been reported to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over allegations connected to breaches of South Africa’s foreign-exchange controls. A dossier outlining the claims was delivered to the SFO on Friday. The… Continue Reading
4,000 women run for office in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Four thousand women are running for office in Iraq’s provincial elections Saturday, and many of them will be guaranteed seats under an electoral quota system. Regardless of the votes their candidates receive, parties are required to give every third seat to a woman, according to a report this week from the International Crisis Group…. Continue Reading
Gregg Is Top Candidate for Commerce Secretary
Associated Press WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Judd Gregg is the leading candidate to become commerce secretary and a decision could come as soon as Monday, an Obama administration official said Saturday. Mr. Gregg’s appointment to the post could give Mr. Obama and his Democratic Party a victory in the Senate, clearing the way for them to pass legislation without fear of a Republican filibuster. It also would provide the administration a strong ambassador to the business community in Mr. Gregg, who devised the $700 billion banking bailout package last year. No firm decision had been… Continue Reading
Numerous prison sentences in Eastern Tibet and Drepung Monastery in Lhasa
By: Yeshe Choesang, WN Correspondent Dharamshala: 31-January-2009 Fifty-four monks from Drepung Monastery in Lhasa were arrested last March. Fourty-three monks received their sentences this past month, but eleven are still detained without sentences. Several Tibetans arrested have been severely injured due to beatings. On Tibetan youth from Karze arrested On 7 January in Shershul, Karze County, Karze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into a Chinese province of Sichuan), a 27 year old Tibetan youth, Namhka Sonam, was arrested after chanting “Free Tibet” and “Long Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” He was reportedly severely beaten by Public Security Bureau officials. After his arrest,… Continue Reading
Begala: Leader of GOP Is ‘Corpulent Drug Addict’ Rush Limbaugh
CNN’s Paul Begala, in response to Friday’s announcement that former Maryland governor Michael Steele had been named Republican National Committee chairman, said, "The real leader of the Republican Party in America today is a corpulent drug addict with an AM radio talk show, Rush Limbaugh." Continue Reading
Iran Snubs Obama: What Will Media Think of Diplomacy Now?
President Barack Obama’s olive branch to Iran was seriously snubbed in the past couple of days as key figures within the Islamic nation made it clear that they have no interest in talking with America unless we change our policies. Continue Reading
Zellweger: ‘I Have a Crush on Jimmy Carter…He Writes Poetry’
On Thursday’s Late Show, actress Renee Zellweger recounted her “emotional” experience seeing Barack Obama’s inauguration, but Obama isn’t the only liberal politician she idolizes. Zellweger, who stars in a new movie that apparently ridicules small town America and Christians, told USA Today: “I have a crush on Jimmy Carter. I admit it. He has an extraordinary mind. He’s an exceptional human being. And he writes poetry, for crying out loud. He’s all good things.”
In a Friday “Life” section profile, “A low-key Renee Zellweger loves to hide in plain sight,” reporter Donna Freydkin relayed: “So wowed was Zellweger that she waited in the blistering Manhattan cold for 2 1/2 hours on Monday to have the 39th President sign her copy of his latest book, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work.” Continue Reading
Aguirre Admits Atlético Madrid Decided Against Faubert Move
Julien Faubert, who looks as though he will be joining Real Madrid this weekend, could have been signed by Atlético Madrid last summer, Javier Aguirre confirmed today. Speaking to AS , the Mexican admitted that… Continue Reading
Lower housing prices predicted through 2011
Add a Comment by Michele Lerner, Residential Real Estate Examiner « Previous PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. released a fairly dismal first quarter 2009 Economic and Real Estate Trends Report. Some of the "highlights" (which most of us will see as "lowlights") of the study include:Nearly half of the nation’s 50 largest markets have an elevated or high probability… Continue Reading
Heidi Vogel in Malaysia
Landing in Kuala Lumpur at sunrise, my heart filled with excitement as I looked out to see the water and the lush land below. The great many facets of Malaysia induced much curiousity, wonder and emotion. An announcement in flight, of a warning of The Capitol Punishment for drug traffickers, prompted me to have a look in my bags and pockets to be sure I hadn’t been used en route. Also a final scare in the line to immigration, wondering if the stamp in my passport, showing that I had once visited Israel, would prohibit my entry, as I know, holders of Israeli passports, may not enter. I was entering a new world. The train to KL Sentral – 35 Ringet (about £6) was a very modern, comfortable… Continue Reading
Mihajlovic Tells Lippi: Pick Marco Di Vaio For Italy
Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has told Italy coach Marcello Lippi to consider Marco Di Vaio for a call-up to the national side. The former Juventus and Valencia striker has been… Continue Reading
Jose Mourinho Leaves Mario Balotelli Out, Again
Mario Balotelli will not be in the squad this Sunday as the club continue their hard line against him. A ‘Technical choice’ is Mourinho’s reason. Reports claimed the… Continue Reading
CNN Sells Obama T-Shirts, Propagandizing for The One
Remember the days when news agencies claimed they were the fourth estate? Remember when they claimed to be “objective” and pretended at being separate from the controlling power in Washington D.C.? Apparently that whole claim has proven somewhat chimeric if the several stories we’ve detailed this week are any indication. And now, to add to the gathering evidence that the Old Media are actively joining Team Obama and the political left, comes CNN to hawk a new line of Obama T-Shirts. So much for being objective. So much for staying above joining a political campaign. Continue Reading
CBS Lists Excess Spending Which Prompted GOP Opposition
Two nights after the CBS Evening News commiserated with President Obama over his unrewarded efforts to win Republican House votes for the “stimulus” plan as Chip Reid chafed over how “Republicans relentlessly attacked the bill despite the President’s extraordinary efforts to get bipartisan support,” Friday’s newscast provided the first broadcast network rundown of the ineffective spending provisions to which GOP Congressmen objected. Fill-in anchor Harry Smith noted: “The Republicans’ biggest complaint about the stimulus bill is it just gives Democrats an excuse to make government bigger. Wyatt Andrews says the examples are not hard to find.” Continue Reading
Driving Mr. Daschle: HHS Nominee Has $100,000 ‘Geithner Problem’
Former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle (picture at right is part of a Getty Images pic at a related New York Times story) has just upped the ante in Washington’s tax-avoiding/evading game of "Can you top this?" Continue Reading
Ingemar Johansson, former world heavyweight champion, dies in Sweden at 76
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, has died, a longtime friend said Saturday. Johansson was 76. Johansson died at a nursing home in Kungsbacka on the Swedish west coast, said Stig Caldeborn, a close friend who sparred with Johansson when they were in their teens. Caldeborn said he didn’t know the cause of death but told The Associated Press that Johansson had recently returned to the nursing home after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Johansson’s daughter, Maria Gregner, told Swedish news agency TT that the former champion died just before midnight Friday. Johansson was… Continue Reading
Secondhand smoke tied to fertility problems
NEW YORK – Women who have ever been around smokers regularly may have more difficulty getting pregnant than those who have not, a new study suggests. The findings, researchers say, offer one more reason for women to kick the smoking habit. Studies have found that women who smoke raise their risk of a number of pregnancy complications, as well as their infants’ risk of health problems. Less is known about the dangers of secondhand smoke, though some studies have linked exposure during pregnancy to an… Continue Reading
Islamist leader wins Somali presidency
DJIBOUTI, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Somalia’s moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed won the presidency on Saturday and vowed to end conflict in the Horn of Africa nation, make peace with neighbours and rule with honesty and justice. Legislators applauded, and Ahmed smiled and raised his arms aloft, after winning the election around 4 a.m. local time (0100) in a run-off vote during an all-night parliament session.Newly-elected Somali president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, seen here upon arrival for the opening ceremony of peace talks with the Somalia government in Djibouti, January 25, 2009.Reuters Analysts say Ahmed has a real chance of… Continue Reading
Sex education is hot topic for wolf scientists
Mexican wolves that roam the hills of Arizona and New Mexico don’t know it, but their Minnesota cousins did them a huge favor last week. The Southwestern wolves are endangered, so scientists tested 14 Minnesota gray wolves as surrogates to learn more about wolf reproduction. It got personal. Eight male wolves donated sperm. Six females had their reproductive organs probed and viewed on monitors. The goal of those and other tests is to improve the chances that artificial insemination can rebuild the endangered Mexican wolf population, said Cheryl Asa, reproductive biologist at the St. Louis Zoo. The zoo team found an ideal lab at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake. The nonprofit… Continue Reading
Digital TV delay back on track
WASHINGTON – The US House is likely to approve legislation postponing next month’s transition to digital television until June, and President Obama plans to sign it, a White House spokesman said. “We anticipate that the House will pass a… Continue Reading
Strong Negative Reaction to Possible Philadelphia Inquirer Bailout
I was dismayed and angry to learn recently that the Philadelphia Inquirer is seeking a $10 million government bailout from my home state of Pennsylvania. My own discontent and the discontent of NB commenters over the possible bailout was made clear in my earlier NewsBusters post on the subject but now its apparent that we are not alone. Chris Freind of the Philadelphia Bulletin, the reporter who interviewed Democrat Governor Ed Rendell’s press secretary about the Inquirer bailout, has chronicled the reaction to the news. Continue Reading
CNN’s Blitzer on Election of Steele: ‘I Don’t See a Whole Lot of Black People’
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer went out of his way to point out the apparent lack of diversity in the leadership of the Republican Party during a panel discussion on Friday’s Situation Room. Just minutes earlier, Michael Steele had been elected the chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Blitzer brought up the race of many of those who had voted for him with Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez: “Take a look at the audience, though — and I want to show our viewers a picture of the audience. Michael Steele, the first African-American leader of the RNC — Leslie, I don’t see a whole lot of black people, at least in that group over there.” He went on to say, “It’s encouraging. I’m sure you’re encouraged that all these white people basically elected an African-American to be their leader.” Continue Reading
US sends Biden to reinforce Nato ties
Washington: Hoping for a fresh start with Europe, the Obama administration is sending a more high-powered delegation, led by Vice-President Joe Biden, to Germany for an annual talkfest on foreign and defence policy. During President George W. Bush’s tenure, the gathering sometimes served as a showcase for US-European friction. Biden, a former chairman of the Senate… Continue Reading
- Chrysler awaits ruling as GM bankruptcy looms
- Iraq is 'not a mess'
Who's lying? Insults fly between Labour and Tories over 3p tax storm- NYC start-up to build furniture from trash
ABC's George Stephanopoulos Fawns Over Obama's 'Law Seminar'- Tata Motors slips to $54 mn loss in Dec quarter
- Asian shares rebound but investors play it safe