Hollywood Gets It

The Kingdom | Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner | Official Site | Now ...
The Kingdom (2007)
The Kingdom - Movie - New York Times the film’s notion that conventional movie values — buddy bonding, boisterous action and a relentless determination to get the bad guys — could bridge the deepest cultural chasm. ....... to figure out “what would a murder investigation look like on Mars?” ....... as they break political barriers and cultural taboos to investigate a bombing in Saudi Arabia not unlike the real-life attacks on Western residential compounds in Riyadh. Those occurred in May 2003, just as Mr. Berg began working on “The Kingdom.” ........ “Two of those guys from the most oppositional backgrounds you can imagine, a Saudi cop and an African-American from Washington, would have more things in common, wanting to make bad things not happen, than all the cultural differences between them.” ......... The film was shot in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Washington and Arizona. ...... several Saudis were retained to provide cultural advice, though one, Mr. Berg said, was distanced from the project after he developed a crush on Ms. Garner ........... one of the traditionally dressed Muslim women at his London screening said she had read the movie as being “about the absurdity of military solutions” to Middle Eastern problems.
The Kingdom (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apple - Trailers - Universal Pictures - The Kingdom - Large ...
Movie Review: The Kingdom
The Kingdom - Movie - Review - New York Times taking aim at the ethical nuances and ideological contradictions of the war on terror and blasting away. ....... “The Kingdom” takes the breathless visual precision of the Jason Bourne movies — what the film scholar David Bordwell calls “intensive continuity” — out of the abstract hall-of-mirrors universe of intra-C.I.A. skulduggery and into a semiplausible world of international tension. Rather than explore that tension, as some other, more ostentatiously serious movies coming out shortly seem poised to do, Mr. Berg and Matthew Michael Carnahan, the screenwriter, do what they can to relieve it with fireballs and frantic chases. The result is a slick, brutishly effective genre movie: “Syriana” for dummies. ....... unpretentious professionalism ..... a horrific double terrorist attack on American oil company workers and their families. ........ Their presence is barely tolerated by the Saudi authorities, many of whom are either incompetent or in cahoots with the jihadis. ......... Fleury recognizes a fellow good cop in the person of Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), a Saudi colonel who helps the Americans both before and after the bullets and rocket-propelled grenades start flying. Once they do, the good guys are in the familiar, physically perilous but morally gratifying position of being outmanned and outgunned with the cavalry nowhere in sight. ....... “I’m not saying America is perfect,” Fleury says a while before the climactic barrage, “but we’re pretty good at this.” ....... depiction of American competence and righteousness. ...... Just as “Rambo” offered the fantasy of do-over on Vietnam, “The Kingdom” can be seen as a wishful revisionist scenario for the American response to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. .......... After a murderous terrorist attack a few of our best people — four, rather than a few hundred thousand — go over to the country that spawned the terrorists, kill the bad guys and come home.


The terrorists are like organized criminals, only they also dabble in religion and politics. In their mind, they are entirely political. You don't invade a country to tackle its organized crime. You send in a few, specialized people who will work with the good people already working towards the same goals locally. You team up.

That is one aspect of it. There are many aspects.

Number one keeps being spreading democracy the progressive way, country after country after country.

You help build a democracy where democracy does not exist. You help build a state where a state does not exist. Too bad Americans only get it when those goals are explained in terms of anti-terrorism.

The world is failing Burma right now. The support extended to the democracy activists in that struggle is mind boggling in its lack of sophistication and magnitude.

Anti-Mormon Prejudice Is Holding Romney Down

Romney otherwise looks good. He looks the part. He looks qualified.



In The News

Kidnappers beaten to death in Bihar Hindu
Wheels of justice turn in Bihar The Statesman
Musharraf gets uneasy victory Los Angeles Times
Mynamar junta takes soldiers off Yangon streets Reuters The Myanmar junta reduced security in Yangon sharply on Sunday, apparently confident it would face no further mass protests ...... the streets remained unusually quiet and arrests continued. ....... few people on the streets said they were still fearful and the Internet .. remained cut off. ..... mass protests which filled five Yangon city blocks ...... referred to her respectfully as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a departure from past practice when her father's name, Aung San, was dropped to deny her link to the nation's independence hero.
Junta eases up on security in Myanmar International Herald Tribune
Myanmar Junta Puts Pressure on Monks The Associated Press saying Sunday that weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries ...... recent raids on monasteries had turned up guns, knives and ammunition
A small flame of hope burns in Burma San Francisco Chronicle Even China, perhaps Burma's closest ally, called on Burma's leaders to "achieve democracy" - a curious remark from a country that crushed its own peaceful uprising, at Tiananmen Square, 18 years ago. But the weight of public opinion from around the world left China little choice. ........ Once again the advocates had hope; some were giddy as the world focused on their country, so often ignored. ...... So now the uprising appears to be dead, just like previous failed efforts in 1988 ......... Burma seems to be one of those problems that the world is powerless to correct - like President Robert Mugabe's destruction of Zimbabwe, or the government-sanctioned cultivation of coca in Bolivia. ......... after a moment of reflection, she insisted, "I don't think it is finished. Burma is much more connected with the world now. The military relies on the same technology. They can't cut it off. I don't think this is over." ...... an uprising from within the military could bring the junta down. ........ the next day a Burmese army major fled to Thailand and told a Thai TV reporter: "As a Buddhist myself, when I heard that monks had been shot dead on the streets and that other people had been shot dead, I felt very upset." All the experts insisted that one change may yet bring the regime's downfall - its attack on the monks. Buddhism is to Burma as Islam is to Saudi Arabia. ........ We have been conditioned to expect results overnight, brought to us on television - as happened in the Soviet Union, Poland, Georgia, Ukraine. ...... The demonstrations may be over. But their repercussions may very well bring change - in time.
Secret cremations hide Burma killings Times Online THE Burmese army has burnt an undetermined number of bodies at a crematorium sealed off by armed guards northeast of Rangoon over the past seven days, ensuring that the exact death toll in the recent pro-democracy protests will never be known. ........... The secret cremations have been reported by local people who have seen olive green trucks covered with tarpaulins rumbling through the area at night and watched smoke rising continuously from the furnace chimneys. ........ watched soldiers in steel helmets blocking off roads to the municipal crematorium and threatening people who poke their heads out of windows overlooking the roads after the 10pm curfew. ........... “There has been no attempt to identify the dead, to return the bodies to their families or to give them even the minimum Buddhist religious rites” ............. Horrifying rumours are sweeping the city that some of those cremated were severely injured people thrust into the ovens alive ........ the army moved bodies after the shoot-on-sight curfew. ....... between 100 and 200 people lost their lives in the Rangoon disturbances. The number of Buddhist monks arrested is put at about 1,000, while about 3,000 civilians have also been detained. The regime’s own statement is that 2,093 people are in custody. ........ The Chinese army carried out a similar practice of anonymous cremations in Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when many unidentified bodies were disposed of at the city’s Babaoshan crematorium. The true number of dead has never been established. ........ the apparently continuous stream of deaths days after the guns fell silent. ...... hospitals and clinics were ordered not to give any treatment to the wounded ...... beaten, injured or wounded people taken into custody have got no treatment and may have died ....... grave concern for the wellbeing of elderly monks and very young novices rounded up, by all accounts, with brutality. ......... Blood-stained robes, shattered statues and defaced holy pictures have been caught on digital images smuggled out of the country. ........ soldiers lined the monks up against a wall and smashed each of their shaven heads against the wall in succession. The monks were roughed up and thrown into trucks, but the abbot was so severely beaten that he died on the spot ........ two boy monks asking for alms on a street in a nearby area appealed for help in their limited English. ..... “We are very frightened,” said the elder, who was about 14, while the younger, about 10, said: “I want to go home to see my mother and father again.” ....... beatings, abuse and starvation in custody ...... The regime has refused to grant access for the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect the conditions of those in detention. ......... “mass relocations” of monks and protesters ..... systematic arrests have continued at night ...... world’s first globalised on-line revolt, instantly dubbed the Saffron revolution. ....... the regime was techno-savvy, patient and thorough. It kept the internet open long enough to allow its own cyber-operatives to down-load the images and recordings of street protests to identify the protesters. The internet is now shut down. ........ Every Burmese street has a block registration with photographs of each resident on the wall of the local administration office ...... arriving to make arrests with computer-generated photographs of their targets pulled off the internet.
With Assists From Google and Apple, Tech Sector Rebounds Washington Post Google and Apple are in the top 10 of almost every portfolio I see. That's what concerns me a little bit about it ......."Be careful what you buy," Dolan said. "A lot of the managers who are managing these tech funds today weren't even around during the boom and bust."
SOCCER: Blurring the lines between politics, money and sports International Herald Tribune
Soccer Seeks Limits on Foreign Players in Challenge to EU Law Bloomberg
Europeans Oppose FIFA's Planned Cap on Foreign Players Deutsche Welle
New Microsoft Service Stores Health Records Online PC World
Spears' New Song Rises on Music Charts Washington Post
Microsoft Wants Your Health Records MSNBC For the umpteenth time you fill in your name, age, allergies, medical history, and the like. ....... Patient health records are about as resistant to information technology as the common cold is to a cure. Doctors with small practices haven't always been keen to make the investment in computer systems when the payoff seems so unclear. Few hospitals have bothered to set up systems to retrieve data from patients' electronic files. ........ there isn't any real economic incentive to digitize data. ...... figures he can build a business that generates "a billion-plus" in revenue from HealthVault as well as another business that sells software to hospitals. ........ Medstory queries generate health-specific information, grouped together under topics such as clinical studies, nutrition, and medication. .......... 76% of adults over 55 use the Web to help diagnose their medical conditions. Those queries generate $500 million to $1 billion in advertising a year ......... most medical information is already in digital form, ready to be gathered up in one place. ....... Terabytes of electronic health-care data already exist, scattered on the servers of pharmacies, insurers, hospitals, and many doctors' offices. ....... With the data in one place, any doctor should have access to it. ....... Microsoft's servers are about as secure as they get. That's because "if they spill the data, it would completely ruin" Microsoft's reputation, says Peel. "It would be like the Exxon Valdez."

CORRECTED: Romney swipes at Republican front-runner Giuliani Reuters
Analysis: Giuliani Lead No Guarantee The Associated Press He has been married three times and supports abortion rights and gay rights ........ his oddities — answering his mobile phone during speeches — and his frequent odes to his beloved New York — cheering the Yankees everywhere he goes — as well as his whiff of arrogance — "I'm probably one of the four or five best known Americans in the world" — ........... The former Massachusetts governor looks and acts the part of a president. He is physically fit, impeccably dressed, handsome and intelligent with deft management skills and a grasp of the issues.
Giuliani's echoing cellphone Los Angeles Times Rudy Giuliani's cellphone chat with his wife during the middle of a recent speech to the National Rifle Assn. is duly added to our roster of candidate-gaffes-that-linger. It joins John Edwards' infamous $400 haircut, Mitt Romney's ill-considered comment about his five sons not serving in the military, and virtually any of Bill Richardson's early debate performances. ........ As with almost every answer Giuliani gives as a presidential candidate, he worked 9/11 into his response. ......... John McCain just ran his first television ad (in New Hampshire). Mitt Romney just ran his 10,000th TV ad ...... livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us .... Until 1952, political advertising on TV was in long blocks of time that allowed a besuited candidate to deliver a speech to the camera. Like radio with a picture. Yawn. ........ www.latimes.com/topoftheticket. ...... Isn't it just a wee bit early for President Hillary Clinton to be making such specific plans for how to use her once infamous now famous husband Bill in her almost-certain administration? ....... He's spinning his wheels at the moment trying to figure out how to rip into her ("How does experience as a first lady traveling to Kenya to visit a school and ride an elephant possibly qualify you to become commander-in-chief?") without tarnishing his nice, polite candidate of hope image. And fewer people are paying attention to that Carolina trial lawyer who's challenging everyone to do what he has to do, take public financing, when they don't have to. ............. Eighteen months before her presumed inauguration, President Clinton II was describing to campaign crowds how she'd use her husband as a roving ambassador sending him all over the world to rebuild the U.S. image. He's got Secret Service protection for life anyway. Why not put them to good use? ............ 'Contrary to the image that has been cultivated about my wife, she's always been a rather reluctant electoral person ........ The Obamans have been working hard to try to build a social movement to elevate their campaign and to avoid the Dean path (and sound effects), but there are a lot of parallels to the Dean campaign. Both drew supporters, many new to politics, who embraced their candidates with an almost messianic zeal, and who used the Internet to try to build fresh networks. ......... One thing Obama has going for him: Dean stumbled as the front-runner. Obama is still trying to catch up to Clinton, and underdogs tend to attract sympathy while front-runners attract brickbats. ........ the Iowa caucuses are scheduled for Jan. 14, followed by the Michigan primary on Jan. 15, Nevada's caucuses and the South Carolina Republican primary on Jan. 19, and the Florida primary and South Carolina Democratic primary on Jan. 29 ........ New Hampshire has yet to set its date, though the DNC has pegged it at Jan. 22 -- after Michigan's new date. The DNC has threatened to not seat delegates from Michigan and Florida if they maintain their unsanctioned dates, but so far the thumbs are on the noses. ........ the Wyoming Republicans are set to hold a primary Jan. 5 ...... Iowa is looking at Jan. 3 or Jan. 5, with New Hampshire likely to go Jan. 8. That will apparently draw Nevada to Jan. 12

Costa Rica Votes on Trade Deal With US The Associated Press
Iraq says Blackwater killed 17, shooting "deliberate" Reuters India
Nepal's coalition partner seek Koirala's resignation Hindu have demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Koirala after the key election was postponed for the second time in six month due to his inability to end the deadlock ....... the Prime Minister's indecisiveness. ..... "We are not to blame for not holding the election," Gurung said, adding it was the joint responsibility of the seven parties to hold election on time.
Sharpton Seeks an Apology Over Thomas’s Language New York Times
The Winners and Losers in Britney’s Drama AFTER years of being fodder for the celebrity press, Britney Spears’s train wreck of a story hit a news high this past Monday ....... the attention paid to this long-running public drama has become a force of its own — one that sells magazines and music, increases Web traffic and gives obscure characters their minutes of fame. ...... one of the top gossip Web sites, adding that both page views and unique visitors spike when an item on her appears ........ the site has run numerous updates, some as brief as a video of Ms. Spears making a left turn onto the Pacific Coast Highway. ........ interest in Ms. Spears outweighed that of any other celebrity ...... “There are people who love her and there are people who think she’s a train wreck,” he said, “and everybody wonders how it’s going to end.” ....... a summer cover, “Britney’s Meltdown,” which was OK!’s best-selling issue ever, at 1.2 million copies ......... her single “Gimme More” is selling strongly ...... the song pole-vaulted from No. 68 to No. 3 ......... Ms. Spears, who has hired and fired numerous publicists, managers and lawyers .......... risks irreversible damage to her career. “There’s a tipping point and she’s close to it,” he said. “Michael Jackson found this out.” ....... Ms. Spears a habitual user of drugs and alcohol ........ a two-minute video for YouTube in which he rails against Ms. Spears’s detractors while sobbing. The “Leave Britney Alone!” video has become one of the site’s most viewed entries of all time, with more than 10.8 million viewers, and Mr. Crocker is making appearances on national talk shows. ......... “This is a woman who loves her kids who doesn’t have her kids. It’s now taken tragic elements.”
Clinton Takes lead for Democrats, Iowa Poll Shows ABC News 29 percent of likely caucusgoers preferring Clinton ..... Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, was the choice of 23 percent ... Obama, an Illinois senator, was at 22 percent , virtually unchanged from May. ...... Clinton picking up support while Edwards and Obama have sharpened their criticism of her. ....... a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. ..... with 53 percent of respondents saying they could be convinced to support someone else, down from 69 percent in May. ...... his paying hundreds of dollars apiece for haircuts and building a $5 million home in North Carolina. ........ Obama, who was campaigning in the state while the poll was conducted, had the highest rating on the traits of integrity, vision and charisma. ...... Among those surveyed who were backing someone other than Obama, 77 percent said his relative lack of experience in national and foreign affairs was a factor.
Faith `plays Every Role' in Obama's Life The Associated Press
Iowa Poll Puts Clinton Ahead The Associated Press

Imagining Obama As Vice President

The first time I ever heard Terry McAuliffe speak in person was at a DL21C event. And there he said something that at some level did not surprise me at all, but I was also very impressed he said it so frankly. McAuliffe, of course, is chair of Hillary 2008. He is top gun. He is a great political talent in his own right.

What he said was that he was going to do the very best he can to make sure Hillary is the next president, but should it happen that Obama bests her in the nomination battle, the very next day he was going to be behind Obama, full force. That was his way of saying Hillary would love to be on the same ticket if she does not win the nomination.

That was at a time when Hillary 2008 was totally taken aback by how well Obama was doing in terms of raising money. After the first quarter numbers came in, Bill Clinton arranged to attend some nonprofit organization fundraiser with Obama in NYC. The champ was recognizing the newcomer.

As a progressive, I of course admire McAuliffe, I admire the Clintons. Of course. And I have a mirror thing to McAuliffe to say. We are going to do the very best we can to make sure Obama is the nominee, but should we fail to do so, the very following day, we are going to be behind Hillary with heartfelt enthusiasm. Under those circumstances, of course it will be great to have Obama on the ticket. Of course. That is a nobrainer.

I think this is going to be such a close race that Hillary and Obama are pretty much stuck with each other. One will be president, another will be vice president. At this point we don't know who will be who. The nominee will not be able to ignore the second place person and go get someone else to be running mate. For the sake of party unity, the second place person will have to be brought onto the ticket.

It helps that the two genuinely like each other.

A lot could and will happen between now and February 5. But it is obvious Hillary and Barack both are showing strength.

Terry Alligator McAuliffe, May 9
Terry McAuliffe: E=mc^2
DL21C Annual Summer Bash: Barack Won The Straw Poll

In The News

Analysis: Clinton Extending Lead The Associated Press 46 percent to 25 percent. ...... Only Clinton and Obama have the deep financial resources to compete in the early contests and in the crush of big states holding primaries Feb. 5. ....... Clinton has worked hard to convince voters that she is not the brittle, calculating figure she long has been portrayed. While she does not have the intuitive campaign skills of her husband, voters say she has impressed them with her warmth, ready smile and willingness to spend hours taking questions, chatting and shaking hands. A bona fide celebrity, Clinton never tires of posing for cell-phone photos with starry-eyed fans. ............ she must win or come in a close second in Iowa; otherwise, her sense of inevitability will vanish. ....... the lingering concern among many voters that he lacks the experience necessary to govern in a dangerous world ..... He can be somewhat remote and chilly as a campaigner, making an intellectual connection with voters rather than an emotional one. He has been known to cut off voters when their questions go on too long and can appear weary of the endless glad-handing and other rituals of retail politics. ........ Elizabeth Edwards has said Clinton is too polarizing to be elected and would not be a strong champion for women in the White House. ..... He has little campaign infrastructure outside Iowa and his candidacy probably cannot survive a defeat there. ...... Biden and Dodd have recently directed their limited campaign resources almost entirely to Iowa, where they are hoping for one of the front-runners to slip and allow an opening.
Obama: War Blocking Domestic Progress The Associated Press the war now costs between $10 billion and $12 billion a month. ...... warned the union crowd that "we're not going to stop globalization in its tracks." ...... He called for updating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada to guarantee workers have the right to organize and that they get training for new jobs when their old ones are eliminated.
Obama Criticizes Private Iraq Guards Guardian Unlimited, UK
Obama Explores Abortion Issue New York Times, United States there is a moral implication to these issues, but that the women involved are in the best position to make that determination. ...... If you believe that life begins at conception, then I can’t change your mind.
Barack Obama, Social Networking King Washington Post, United States grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia and has lived in New York and Chicago ...... Back in 2004, the strategy was, get them to your Web site. ..... online you have to go where the audience is

Obama Remains 1st In Iowa Staff Primary, But Not In Endorsements MSNBC yard signs do not a ground game make. ...... Organization on the ground is key in a state as large (99 counties and just shy of 56,000 square miles) and as purple as Iowa (Gore won the state in 2000; Bush won in 2004.) ........ Even the most charismatic candidate can't turn out the vote without dedicated staffers to organize canvassing drives, phone banks, candidate visits, and town hall meetings. .... Obama's staff is the largest, with an estimated 200 paid operatives in the state. That number is likely to increase in light of Obama's post-third-quarter organizational push. ........ boasts a whopping 31 offices, some in counties with populations less than 20,000. The Clinton field operation encompasses 21 offices ....... When former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer endorsed Barack Obama, he candidly told reporters that his main asset as a supporter will be his connections within the state party. ....... Hillary Clinton weighs in with 16 endorsements from state senators and representatives; Obama and Biden share the silver medal at ten apiece. ....... There's no metric of organization that can truly calculate the political magic that will make Iowans bundle up and decide to go talk politics for a few hours on a cold January night.

Obama Criticizes Private Iraq Guards ABC News

Burma: Than Shwe Is Going To The Hague

Dialogue? What dialogue?

Than Shwe has to totally and unconditionally surrender. Suu Kyi forms a multi-party interim government that will hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year. That is the road map.

Than Shwe is a criminal. He has to disappear from Burma's national scene forever. He has to be brought to justice at The Hague for the 3,000 Burmese he butchered in 1988, and the hundreds he has butchered this year, and the thousands in between.

Than Shwe is a war criminal. He has to be charged with crimes against humanity. An international force has to be sent into Burma to capture him and hand over to the International Court Of Justice.

Than Shwe has to be totally and utterly deposed by people power.

This is the time for the international community to decide. Either you are with the people of Burma, or you are not. There is no neutral ground available.

Britain Is Betraying Burma
Burma: Time For All Out Sanctions By All Powers
Burma: Momentum Is Key To Victory
Shame On The Top Politicians Of The World: Burma Asks For More
In Solidarity With The Burmese People

Getting Involved

It has not been at all hard to get hold of the email addresses of the top Burma democracy groups in the world.

In The News

London supporters march for Burma BBC News, UK
British PM Calls for Tougher Sanctions on Burma Voice of America
Monks lead London's Burma protestBBC News
UK's Gordon Brown: Britain wants further EU sanctions against Burma International Herald Tribune
Canadians demonstrate against Burma crackdown CTV.ca, Canada
world’s Operation Burma: Let’s just watch them die New Europe
Burma protest movement 'remains strong' Bangkok Post Burma's underground opposition intends to launch a campaign of civil disobedience to maintain the pressure for change on the military junta. .......... Last week's brutal crackdown on protests in Burma will not stop the growing movement for reform in the pariah state, pro-democracy leaders in exile said Friday in Bangkok. ........ "A movement that brought out 1 million people willing to defy bullets cannot easily disappear." ..... "People in the communities always give food to the monks, but now the people have started to go to the monks to ask them for food" ...... rejected the commonly held idea that the military junta is deaf to international criticism. "If you don't read Burmese, you may think that," he said. "But the Burmese media, which are run by the regime, they are reacting all the time to what the US says, the EU, the UN. They do care about international opinion, and it is important to pressure them."
Burma activists plan next stage of protests Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom Moving daily between safe houses, the Burmese pro-democracy activists and monks who co-ordinated last month's protests are planning the next stage of their fight against the ruling generals while on the run from the ongoing crackdown. ....... The activists, many of whom are veterans of the 1988 student uprising, believe this is the best opportunity in two decades to oust Senior General Than Shwe and the clique of ageing officers who run Burma. ....... appealed for greater international pressure on the regime. ...... "International assistance is needed urgently," he said, speaking by a smuggled satellite phone from his hiding place in Burma to supporters in New York. "We welcome the world's reaction but we would like the international community to be more active and effective as the junta is trying to keep power by the most violent means. Please continue all your efforts to help us." ......... "There are about half a dozen leaders from the 1988 generation who are still hiding in and around Rangoon" ...... "Both sides know that this is like the lull between battles in a war. ........ Peaceful protests against the regime are already beginning as people gather at major pagodas, lighting candles and praying together. ..... "It's a clever way to protest because Buddhists always go to pagodas and monasteries to light candles and pray. ....... more ambitious plans for civil disobedience are emerging. "People are calling for non-co-operation with the regime and for non-attendance of factories and offices" ......... up to 10,000, including thousands of monks, have been detained and at least 200 killed. ...... 2,400 monks and nuns had been arrested across the country ...... The latest raids occurred on Thursday in South Okkalapa township where the Ngwe Kyar Kan monastery witnessed the bloodiest crackdown on monks the previous week. In the latest sweeps, all remaining monks and lay people were removed from two other near-empty monasteries which the military is now expected to fill with pro-regime clergy. ......... Few Burmese exiles are placing much hope in the prospect of meaningful negotiations. ...... activists believe that the chance of change are greater now. "The violent crackdown is the same, but the world can see what is happening which is different," said Mr Kyi. "That's why so many activists don't want to go abroad. They want to stay and continue their work. People know it's risky, but the 1988 generation were beaten and tortured and imprisoned and we're still carrying on."
Monks Who Fled Burma say They are Returning to Keep up Pro ... Voice of America Traffic across the Thai-Burma border is normal. ..... There are also people crossing the border with belongings on their heads. It is hard to tell which ones are fleeing the violence. Among those who have been coming are monks who have come all the way from Rangoon. .......They describe a very difficult journey to this border, often under disguise, evading police, evading soldiers at the checkpoints they say have been established, or are operating between Burma's main city, Rangoon, and the Thai border. ....... they told me they intend to go back. Their response was that change can only come from inside, they've come here to obtain goods, money, support, and then head back into the country to continue protesting.
Silence in Burma Wall Street Journal
PM pledges £1m to Burma aid fund The Press Association
200 march in city for Burma Melbourne Herald Sun
Monks Return to Burma to Continue Protest Voice of America
The Burma question Toronto Star, Canada
Canadians rally across Canada in support of Myanmar dissidents The Canadian Press
Aussie crowds march in support for Burma The West Australian
Burma: General Command TIME The rulers of the world's pariah states are usually recognizable personalities. Kim Jong Il with his electrified hairdo, Muammar Gaddafi with his aviator sunglasses, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with his penchant for windbreakers. But Burma? No one dictator comes to mind, only a coterie of faceless generals — 12, if one wants to be exact. .......... one of the world's longest-standing military dictatorships. ..... constitutional guidelines passed last month bar anyone without army experience from holding high office ....... In the past two decades, Burma's generals have doubled the army's size to 450,000 soldiers, making it one of the largest military forces in the world. More than one-third of the nation's budget is spent on this massive establishment. ....... Despite scattered reports of soldiers refusing to shoot against Buddhist monk–led demonstrators last week, most of the wide-eyed recruits obeyed orders. ...... Formerly a ragtag band of freedom fighters, the military helped the country free itself from British colonialism. Aung San, the father of democracy activist Suu Kyi, is revered both as an independence hero and as the founder of Burma's army. .......... Burma is composed of more than 100 ethnic groups ...... back in 1990 — as many as 20 ethnically based political parties contested the polls. ....... "Than Shwe grew up under colonial occupation by the British and the Japanese ........ killer diseases like malaria and tuberculosis run rampant, and roughly half a million people are infected with HIV. Nearly one-third of children under five years of age are malnourished; of those who are healthy, some rural youngsters are forced to toil as child labor. ......... Burma's generals may be faceless, but they have outlasted most of the world's better-known dictators.
India needs Burma Times of India, India Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who has replaced Nelson Mandela as the living Mahatma ..... an India that has too much on its own plate. ..... just 70 years ago Burma was an integral part of India. ..... In 1937, India shared land borders with Persia (Iran), Afghanistan and Russia in the west and China, Tibet, Siam (Thailand), French Indo-China (Laos and Vietnam) and Malaya in the east. Ceylon lay just across the Palk Straits and the emirates in the Persian Gulf constituted a sphere of Indian influence, controlled by an India-appointed resident in Bushehr. Successive viceroys exchanged angry notes with London demanding a similar arrangement in Teheran and Baghdad. ..... Already hamstrung by Partition, India vacated the Asian space to China, Russia and the US. A series of disastrous economic turns reduced India to a bit player, scarcely able to look beyond Pakistan. India suffered a reduction of stature, responsibilities and ambition. It is only in the past decade - with the recovery of economic composure - that the recovery of a lost inheritance has begun. ...... India abdicated its responsibilities and allowed Beijing to become the dominant influence in Burma. Today, China lurks over India from Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal and Burma. Its shadow has encroached into the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman islands. ..... For India, the upsurge in Burma is an opportunity to turn the clock back. But before that happens, Burma must return to our mental map. India needs Burma more than Burma needs it.
Washington demonstrators rally to 'free Burma' SI.com
Ethnic Minorities Key to Burma's Future Newsweek “the union of Burma” consisted of seven “divisions” inhabited by Burmans plus seven “states” occupied by ethnic peoples. ..... The current junta has been battling them with disproportionate ferocity, killing thousands in the jungle, far from the public eye. ...... They advocate a power-sharing arrangement involving them, the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. Some even say they might have forced the junta to negotiate during the recent demonstrations if the international community had offered material help rather than just expressions of outrage and support. ....... Muang Muang, general secretary of the National Council of the Union of Burma, a liberal, pro-federal resistance group founded in 1992. “They had their own vision, their own perspective on how things should be run. That’s my frustration. We could have caused the regime to come to the table.” He leaves no doubt that he had envisioned a strategy of wider civil resistance during the recent mass protests. “They [the government] were shooting in the city. We could have had operations on the outskirts of Rangoon; blocked it up. They don’t have the guts to beat up people in small places.” .......... “Sympathy will not solve the problem. Action is needed,” says Dr. Lian H. Sakhong, general secretary of the Ethnic National Council, an umbrella ethnic congress. ...... He called for tough sanctions, especially by regional governments, an insistence that the generals release all political prisoners and a U.N. inquiry into the recent uprising. ..... The pro-democracy movement, he added, should receive direct funding, and he noted that monks and their supporters were “marching on hearts and water.” ........ sent at least 1 million refugees into Thailand ...... there have been 227 protests openly defying the regime; 1 million people took to the streets in 26 cities and towns across Burma on Sept. 24 and demonstrations have occurred in 66 cities and towns across the country, in all 14 states and divisions. .......... “If the military is guaranteed there will be no trials against them if they share power [they would consider it] because they fear trials” ...... The league won the last democratic election in 1990, garnering 395 seats in parliament. The ethnic minorities’ umbrella party won 67 seats and the military’s National Unity Party won 10.
Burma: Rebels Plan Next Steps
After Protests, Rebels Plot Comeback
Activists Plan for Nationwide Strike protestors have still been taking to the streets of Rangoon in what he calls "guerilla demonstrations," with small groups melting away when challenged by the military and then reappearing elsewhere. ........ several big demonstrations took place around the country on Saturday, even as the regime seemed to be finishing off its crackdown on the monks in Rangoon. He says that he's struck by the extent to which his compatriots have been overcoming their own fear in recent weeks: "More and more people are willing to talk with outside media." ....... a distinct sense of unfinished business: "The underlying sources of grievance haven't been addressed." ..... rumors of a split within the ruling military. Some say that lower- and mid-level officers increasingly resent their superiors' ever-more-obvious corruption and indiscriminate use of force to keep the country under control.
Satellites Watch the Crackdown

How Many Of Hillary's Millions Are Lobbyist And Special Interest Money?

Hillary and Barack are both at 70 plus million dollars each with Barack edging her out by a few million dollars. Hillary has made it absolutely clear, Hsu or no Hsu, that she is going to take insider money. Yes, she will take money from lobbyists, from special interests.

In so doing, she propagates two myths.

One, the lobbyists represent real people. An oil company lobbyist might represent the oil company, but that oil company hires "real people." That is her circuitous argument. Why did we not think of this before we made the McCain-Feingold mistake a few years ago?

Two, she takes money from them, but she is not beholden to them.

Both the myths fly in the face of reality.

If corporations felt that their interests and the interests of the American people at large were in complete sync, they would not hire lobbyists in the first place. They would let the public servants responding to voters do the good work of policy making.

Corporations giving money out to politicians are not in the charity business. They have very specific agendas. You don't have to go any further than Hillary's health care plan to see how corporate lobbying money influences agenda.

Hillary's health care plan is a sellout to the insurance industry. One, those with existing coverage get to continue that way: the status quo remains. Then she figures out ways to give those insurance companies more customers by making it illegal to not have insurance. And if you can't afford it, the government will help you pay for it. In essence, she wants the insurance companies to have more of public and private money.

How is that any different from Dick Cheney's oil pals increasing gas prices?

On Iraq Hillary's judgment lapse was to go with the establishment. On health care she is giving a repeat performance.

Tackling health care necessarily requires changing the way the insurance companies do business. If the sector were driven by market forces, it would be at the cutting edge of adopting information technology. It is not. There is no talk in Hillary's plan as to how she will do that injecting so as to bring the costs down across the board. She hopes costs will come down. Well.

Like someone said, there are only two groups of Americans that need to worry about Hillary's health care plan: the healthy and the sick.

In The News

Musharraf Wins Vote in Pakistan; Court to Weigh Bid New York Times The lawyers movement, which has opposed General Musharraf’s eight years of military rule on constitutional grounds, and all the main opposition parties, are backing the legal challenges. ....... Musharraf for his promotion of women. ...... and attacking an armored police vehicle with sticks after it ran over the feet of two senior lawyers. ........ Some 80 members of opposition parties resigned their parliament seats ... but Ms. Bhutto’s party, which has been negotiating a power sharing deal with General Musharraf, chose only to abstain from the vote, preventing an attempt to declare the vote invalid. ....... Coming just a day after successfully negotiating an amnesty bill with the government that will allow Ms. Bhutto to return to Pakistan later this month to contest parliamentary elections, her party’s protest appeared as a token protest.
Pakistan's Musharraf Sweeps Election Washington Post has promised to give up his powerful army post if he wins the election and restore civilian rule. ...... The Supreme Court may be reluctant to overturn Musharraf's victory in the ballot. ...... On Friday, he signed into law an amnesty quashing corruption charges against her and other politicians.
New term for Musharraf — almost Los Angeles Times
Kim Jong-il: Internet Expert DailyTech “I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired.” ...... North Korea explicitly prohibits its 23 million citizens from accessing the Internet and mobile phones outside of government research groups. South Korea, by comparison, is one of the world's most digitally connected countries. ....... Satellite photographs of North Korea at night reveal very few lights, indicating the country does not have a very high capacity for electricity, let alone computers or Internet. ...... What is known, is that Kim and the ruling party has a definitive taste for all things Western. Kim's son, Jong-nam, was arrested and expelled from Japan while trying to enter Disney Land in 2001. Late last year, the U.S. imposed a ban on all luxuries originating from the U.S. destined for North Korea, including the Great Leader's beloved iPods.
Brown calls for more EU sanctions on Myanmar Reuters "And we have very grave concerns about hundreds, possibly thousands, of monks, nuns and others who have simply disappeared."
Are Clinton, Obama, Edwards All The Same? CBS News she is militaristic and ultranationalistic; she would carry on Bush's policy of a long-term occupation of Iraq, define foreign policy around the "war on terror," support the hard-liners in Israel and promote the centrist-Democratic, left-smashing ideology of the DLC. ......... the strong, experienced woman; the black (but not too black) inspirer of hope; the hands-on economic populist crusader. ........ her health care plan .. a gift to the insurance industry. ....... my colleague Laura Flanders wrote that an Obama campaign rally in New York City was buzzing with progressive energy .......... followed Edwards in supporting the global abolition of nuclear weapons (a position originally put forward by Ronald Reagan, and now by Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn and George Shultz .............. nearly three in ten Americans are poor or near-poor ..... Clinton is notoriously unapologetic about receiving large donations from wealthy interests. ........ Obama, not antipoverty Edwards, has the progressive halo ......... there are still nearly four endless months to slog through ....... the disaster that is the war on drugs .... call for free college education
Obama's Judgment CBS News the latest shot in Obama's continuing campaign to highlight judgment as his key virtue ....... judgment and temperament are the most important qualities I look for.
UN chief 'disappointed' by Nepal elections delay AFP
Arroyo back Saturday night from India Inquirer.net President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was to return to Manila Saturday night after obtaining about US$2 billion in new investments from Indian companies. ....... a two-nation swing that also took her to China. China and India are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. ....... a new middle class of half a billion people, [India's] internal market demand and domestic consumption ....... the $1.6 billion new investment of Ispat Industries Ltd ...... Global Steel of Mittal ...... She later told reporters that steel magnate Lakshmi N. Mittal personally called her up to confirm the new investment. ....... the importation of cheaper medicines, expansion of business process outsourcing and call centers in the Philippines, deals on renewable energy and health care, and cooperation in fighting terrorism. ....... the President visited Mumbai, India's business hub, where she invited Indian pharmaceutical companies to set up plants in the Philippines to help cut the price of medicines by half.
Philippines, India agree to cooperate on trade, terrorism AFP
Shiite power brokers agree to end bloodshed in Iraq International Herald Tribune Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council ......... al-Sadr announced a "freeze" of his militia activities for up to six months to allow for its restructuring.
Tiny start-up rival to Google? San Jose Mercury News the nightmare of any Silicon Valley CEO: The thought that a smart kid in a messy garage in Silicon Valley is right now developing technology that will make his company's products obsolete. ....... the firm's promising new search technology ...... contrary to stereotype, the extremely powerful software code was actually developed by a 54-year-old German mathematician working in a spick-and-span office near the University of Munich. ........ Thomas Nitsche's program matches Web pages with relevant advertising. ...... While Google looks at the words on a Web page, Proximic looks for patterns of characters. That means Proximic's approach is completely language-independent, so it works as well with German and Chinese as it does with English. ........ this makes Proximic ideal for the random spew of user-generated content posted daily on blogs and social-networking sites around the Web, material that often gets the better of Google's algorithms. ......... has the potential of being a game changer ...... Proximic raised $4.5 million in its first round of founding ....... he has tested Proximic and Google AdSense and that Proximic had so far come out ahead. "The matching seems to be of a very high quality" ....... A world microcomputer chess champion in 1984, Nitsche drew on that experience during the five years he spent writing Proximic's matching engine. In programming a computer to play chess, Nitsche also learned, by necessity, to write very efficient programs. The computers he was using had only about 5 kilobytes of memory. He said Proximic's core technology amounts to less than one megabyte of software code. ........ Nitsche and Pieper first met in 2001, at a party thrown by Pieper's sister, Loretta Wurtenberger, founder of Webmiles, a travel-loyalty program that was acquired by Bertelsmann. ......... At the time of the party, Nitsche was developing big trading systems for banks. Pieper had a start-up that focused on electronic data interchange. Pieper chatted with Nitsche about a technical problem he was having. Nitsche proposed a solution. "The next day we went off and started a company," Pieper said. ....... Polished and debonair, Pieper embraced the business side while Nitsche, straight-spoken and tweed-wearing, reveled in the abstract math. Uncomfortable in English, Nitsche frequently lets Pieper do the talking. ...... Nitsche worked alone the first few years in Bauhaus-style offices furnished through purchases on eBay. "It was a very hard time," he recalled. Pieper would join Nitsche nights and weekends, helping to hash out core algorithms. ........ Proximic, with its slender string of code and 14 employees, does not imagine itself slaying the Google Goliath. But he is hoping to do business with a number of Google competitors, and he promises Proximic will be making some major announcements soon
Pipex cries Freedom4 WiMax VNUNet.com Freedom4 has been given a national licence to deploy WiMax services in the 3.6GHz band, and will work with businesses and local authorities to build the necessary infrastructure to provide broadband wireless internet access across the UK. ....... symmetrical upload and download speeds of up to 8Mbps ....... Over half of those customers who took part in the trials saw the most benefit in the and ease of connectionfast speed, while 20 per cent were most impressed by the fully wireless nature of WiMax.
WiMax threatens to disrupt 4G strategies mobile operators and other service providers are planning mobile WiMax networks all over the world, mainly in the 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz bands. ........ forecasts "substantial numbers" of WiMax subscribers worldwide, more than 95 million using customer premises equipment devices by 2012, and almost 200 million using mobile devices, with some overlap between the two. ....... major semiconductor and equipment makers, with the exception of Qualcomm and Ericsson, are staking out their positions for this emerging sector, while operator enthusiasm, led by Sprint and Clearwire in the US, is rising sharply.
Mobile broadband users to pass 1bn by 2012 say analysts $400bn ..... driven by demand from North America, Western Europe and to a lesser extent by the Far East and China. .... the uptake of mobile broadband will hinge heavily on the availability of suitable devices, be they handsets, laptops, datacards, or other types of device such as media players and handheld gaming consoles. ......... Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) technology, which is a standard for the wireless transmission of data using radio signals, will be the next most prolific technology driven by extensive penetration of the Americas and Far East.
Mobile broadband facing a revolution Only a third of the world's population is connected to a cellular network ........ mobile WiMax will initially target the ultra mobile PC or tablet markets rather than the mobile smartphone market. ....... xMax will potentially enable service providers to promote unlimited local and long distant voice calls as well as unlimited text messages at very low monthly prices.
Global demand for mobile data services soars Global mobile data revenues from services other than SMS exceeded $10bn in the first quarter of 2007 ....... Worldwide SMS traffic was up year-on-year by around 50 per cent to more than 620 billion messages in the first quarter of 2007.
Mainstream global mobile video 'years away' mobile handsets are only one way to receive mobile video services, and that PCs, portable media players, navigation systems and other devices are all in the mix. ........ broadcast, premium and pay-per-view TV, as well as on-demand video.
Chinese telecoms operators gear up for 3G different billing models, such as traffic-based, monthly and content-based billing, to cover voice, short message and Wap services.
Mobile email will eventually kill SMS say analysts a fifth of all email will be wireless by 2010 ......... expects wireless email to reach commodity status by 2012. ..... around 114 million text messages are currently sent every day ..... "By 2012, wireless email products will be fully interoperable, commoditised and have standard features. They will be shipping in larger volumes at greatly reduced prices." ...... A longer term trend that will accompany wireless email adoption is convergence, as users choose a single tool to help simplify communication. ..... hiding technology complexity from users and allowing them to focus on messaging content. ......... provide real-time communications for their expanding mobile workforce.
Cisco identifies mobile working psyche Many businesses are in danger of bungling mobile working initiatives through poor management, a failure to communicate adequately and the recruitment of " inappropriate personalities" ........ Mobile workers will account for a quarter of the world's working population by 2009 ....... the dominant personality characteristics of effective mobile workers and the cultural influences on mobile working. ...... "Managers must not fall into the trap of treating mobile workers in the same way as office-based employees. ....... the best mobile workers as self-motivated, resilient, extrovert and independent ........ Stimulation Seeker: extroverted, motivated by contact with people ... Tough Survivors: emotionally stable, low levels of neuroticism, resilient under pressure ... Curious Explorers: creative, open to new ideas, enjoys variety of experience ... Independent Decision Makers: maintains independent mindset, appreciates being trusted to work without supervision ... Disciplined Achievers: conscientious and self-motivated ...... Trust and communication are vital to ensuring that mobile teams remain motivated and productive ....... emphasise deliverables rather than activities ........... offer a range of options to workers based on a wide variety of factors, rather than a blanket approach that may suit only a small percentage.
Cisco wants peace with Microsoft Cisco chief John Chambers believes that a clash with Microsoft may be inevitable ...... both companies are expanding into each other's turf ...... companies often have a poor track record in combined cooperation and competition. ...... Microsoft is currently pushing into the unified communications market, where Cisco has been playing for a long time with its IP telephones. Unified communications allow users to route messages across several technologies such as instant messaging, telephone and email.
Cisco Reinvents The Corporate Incubator innovate the innovation process ....... creating start-up-like innovation inside a billion dollar corporation. ....... created an emerging technology business group last year that looks for new ideas that have the potential to turn into a $1bn market within five years. Its target is to yield 20 new ventures by 2012. ......... Nearly 18 months after the initial launch, an internal Cisco wiki has already yielded 400 ideas for new businesses. ......... Company incubators have a poor track record in delivering actual business results ..... Innovators and entrepreneurs tend to suffocate when they work for large corporations, and executives often prove less supportive when incubators start creating products that threaten the firm's core business and profit margins. .......... core business of routing and switching ....... a compromise between the uncertainty and excitement of a start-up and the security of a large corporation.
Cisco sets course for Data Centre 3.0 has started to unify its network application services into a new enterprise data centre platform, promising increased server utilisation. ....... Cisco considers the mainframe era as data centre 1.0, and the current client-server model as data centre 2.0. Data centre 3.0 combines the company's ideas for using the network to manage data with the rise of virtualisation technology. ......... "moving from a box mentality to an architecture mentality". ........ able to identify when a service or application suffers from peak demand and dynamically add additional server resources. ...... installation of the operating system, middleware and applications. .... several other products under the Data Centre 3.0 banner, including the Transted Wan optimisation software, which encrypts key data on the network to ensure integrity, and an XML gateway for securing web services. ..... Data Centre 3.0 will lay the foundation for new services and technology that will drive a new wave of business efficiencies and revenue growth. ........ By enabling collaboration across departments and between companies, these innovations will dwarf the economic growth achieved during the first wave of internet adoption during the 1990s ...... the increased communications as the true web 2.0 ...... "The next wave of productivity is not about personalisation, it is about collaboration" ....... "Collaboration is nothing more than working together towards a common set of goals. Web 2.0 enables communication."
Cisco to step up telepresence push a $299,000 advanced video conferencing system that uses three high definition televisions and requires a 10Mbps connection. ......... Analysts have cited the $299,000 price tag as an obstacle to wide adoption. But Chambers claimed that savings in travel expenses mean that the systems offer a return on investment in less than a year. "Price is not an issue. This is about process change"
One mobile phone is never enough more people choosing to own a second or third subscription. ...... the price per minute for traditional mobile voice services declines.
Vodafone joins the WiMAX forum other key industry bodies such as the GSMA, 3GPP and the Next Generation Mobile Network initiative ...... "The prospects for WiMAX to play an important role in the future development of mobile are better in those parts of the world where large numbers of people do not yet have access to telecoms or the internet" ...... joining the WiMAX Forum just seems like an obviously sensible thing for Vodafone to do ....... The WiMAX Forum is an industry-led non-profit organisation that now comprises more than 470 companies including 141 operators worldwide, and although mobile WiMAX is less mature than 3G LTE at present, it is being strongly touted as the future of wireless data transmission due to its faster speeds and longer range.
Korea to open up telecoms markets so-called mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which rent bandwidth on mobile infrastructure to run their own distinct mobile voice and date networks. ....... Korea's government has hitherto tended to stage-manage competition in the country's telecoms markets.
$4,000 phone bill for porn leads to suicide A Korean teenager committed suicide after running up a $4,000 bill viewing pornography on his mobile phone ...... the mobile-crazy nation. ...... The country has 40.2 million mobile phone subscribers out of a population of almost 49 million.
Mobile porn set to explode over next five years
Korea becoming a nation of phone junkies Addicted teens suffer stress and hallucinations ....... they sometimes imagine hearing them ringing when they are not. ...... Forty per cent send over 1,000 text messages every month ....... a fifth refused to be parted from their phones even while bathing. ..... Almost 80 per cent of the country's 48 million people have mobile phones ...... Among teenagers, owning a mobile phone is seen as essential to having a normal social life
Chinese teens go crackers over web porn
South Korean hackers declare war on US
Fixed voice disappearing rapidly in EU says analyst fixed voice is going to suffer not the slow and lingering decline many have predicted, but a rather rapid one ........ 90 per cent of all voice minutes in Finland will originate on mobile phones by 2008
Mobile payments to generate $22bn by 2011
Firms prepare for mobile VoIP Seven out of 10 global businesses expect to be using VoIP regularly on mobile devices over the next two years
Wi-Fi world record set at 304km The link extended from Sardinia to central Italy and achieved data rates of about 5Mbps. ....... "After successfully interconnecting the whole Italian country with analogue FM repeaters, we would like to realise a new wide-band digital network to connect all Italian ham radio users to each other and to other services such as Echolink, ATV and Dstar"
Wireless standards battle looming
Video networking drives 802.11n adoption
Early Adoption Of Mobile WiMax Gets Underway InformationWeek Razzolink's main target has been rural subscribers who can't get or don't want DSL or cable. ....... setting up a new customer is as simple as delivering a modem and "flipping up the antenna." On rare occasions, an antenna is placed on a subscriber's roof. ...... "over-the-air software upgrade" ..... Navini has supplied its Ripwave MX product line to 70 networks on six continents. The largest is Unwired Australia, a 70,000-subscriber deployment in Sydney and Melbourne.
Bachchan to endorse Dabur's Chyawan Jr Business of Cinema
A Big Loss at Merrill Stirs Unease New York Times leaner and more disciplined. ...... would write down $5 billion primarily in its fixed-income sector: subprime loans, complex debt instruments and leveraged, or risky, loans. ......... The size of the write-down was second only to one for $5.9 billion taken by Citigroup, which is three and a half times the size of Merrill. ....... “While market conditions were extremely difficult and the degree of sustained dislocation unprecedented, we are disappointed in our performance in structured finance and mortgages” ........ UBS has announced a $3.4 billion write-down, and Deutsche Bank, $3.1 billion. ........ expected JPMorgan Chase to write down about $2 billion, and the Bank of America Corporation about $1 billion. ....... Investors reacted by pushing up the stock, relieved that Merrill had provided information about its problems and a belief that the worst was over. Shares rose $1.89, to $76.67. .......... When Wall Street started making big returns on everything from proprietary trading to new and creative ways of reselling the home mortgages, Merrill charged in headfirst.
End Of An African Nightmare what until recently was a horrible war zone, but is now a place of hope .......... Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected head of state in Africa ...... the 14-year civil war had killed 270,000 people – an astonishing one out of every twelve Liberians – and forced another 250,000 to become refugees. ...... The economy had completely collapsed, with GDP falling by more than 90 percent between 1989 and 1996, one of the largest collapses ever recorded anywhere in the world. ....... United Nations peacekeepers put an end to the conflict in 2003. Taylor first went into exile in Nigeria and is now in The Hague facing war crimes charges ........ rebuilding institutions, restoring basic services, reviving the economy and beginning to heal the deep wounds of war. ...... the resolution of its massive foreign debt. ....... electricity and water are being restored (there was no piped water or electricity except generators anywhere in the country for 14 years) ......... there are a small number of people that profited handsomely from the conflict and seem prepared to do anything to regain power. ...... 14,000 U.N. peacekeepers ...... The major creditors all have pledged to forgive Liberia’s debts, but the process is stuck at the IMF, where the Board has been debating for a full year how to share the costs of the write-off. ........ I hate to be a sexist, but maybe we ought to put more women in charge in tough places around the world.
Vatican buys soccer club News24
Study of US child health takes big step forward Reuters
They Call Him the Fixer in a World That’sa Mess New York Times create a singularly contemporary screen identity as a man of unquiet conscience. ....... that rarefied gray zone where the barely legal meets the almost criminal and takes lunch at the private club ...... A Lady Macbeth in pumps and discreet pearls, Karen has pledged her troth to her corporate masters instead of a murderous husband. She’s a cliché — brittle, sexless, friendless, cheerless and all the rest — but what makes her work is her unnerving banality, visible in the blank canvas of a face that looks untouched by gentleness or empathy. This is a pitiful creature, as unloved by her writer-director creator as by the genius actress who plays her. .......... the legal thriller ...... an unexpectedly tender moment when Michael stares into a new morning in a country field without uttering a single word .......... the film feels truest when Michael is grappling with his contradictions. ........ a grimmer, compromised version of Erin Brockovich ...... a different country, one in which the media fail, capitalism kills and heroes stumble ....... We need George Clooney, just as we needed Warren Beatty — seducer of heavy hearts and troubled minds, the beautiful bearer of our very bad tidings.

Video: New York City For Barack Obama 7