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15 Nov 2010 10:57

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World: 28-story Shanghai tower goes ablaze; here’s the video (holy crap)

  • Good God. In Shanghai today, a fire erupted around this 28-story tower, killing 9 and injuring 90 others. But it looks far worse than even those injuries would suggest. source
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15 Nov 2010 10:25

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World: Aung San Suu Kyi pushing hard for democracy in Myanmar

  • I don’t want to see the military falling. I want to see the military rising to dignified heights of professionalism and true patriotism. I think it’s quite obvious what the people want; the people just want better lives based on security and on freedom.
  • Recently-freed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi • Revealing her hopes for bringing democracy to Myanmar (also known as Burma), which has been led by a military junta for the last two generations. She wants military leadership to end, though. “I think we also have to try to make this thing happen,” she said “Velvet revolution sounds a little strange in the context of the military, but a non-violent revolution. Let’s put it that way.” As you might guess by what she’s saying, she had no conditions set on her freedom. source
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14 Nov 2010 20:40

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World: Northern Ireland political icon Gerry Adams: Ireland needs my help

  • We need more voices that will stand up against the consensus for cuts – more voices that will stand up for ordinary people. We need new politics. We need a political realignment. A change of government without a change in policies will be worthless.
  • Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams • Revealing his plans to leave Northern Ireland politics to run for parliament in Ireland’s mainland. It’s ironic that he says “voices” so many times in this quote. Adams’ voice was famously banned from British television in the ’80s due to his party’s ties to the Irish Republican Army. Adams has long been an advocate of making Northern Ireland a part of Ireland proper, but his reasons for running for Irish parliament are largely economic – he plans to run largely in opposition to the deep cuts current leadership is making in the country. We covered some of the country’s problems earlier today. source
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14 Nov 2010 12:09

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World: Haiti’s cholera outbreak tops 900, spreads throughout country

  • 917 the current death toll from waterborne cholera in Haiti as of Friday
  • 14.7k the number of hospitalizations caused by the outbreak
  • six of the country’s ten provinces have had cholera outbreaks source
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14 Nov 2010 12:01

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World: Hamid Karzai to Americans: Mind calming down this war stuff?

  • The time has come to reduce the presence of, you know, boots in Afghanistan … to reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life.
  • Afghan President Hamid Karzai • Suggesting that the U.S. needs to scale back its military operations in Afghanistan so as to encourage a less volatile situation in the country. The U.S. doesn’t plan to change course, however: “We understand President Karzai’s concerns,” an anonymous military official (the best kind!) said, “but we would not be as far along as we are pressuring the network had it not been for these very precision operations we do at night.” Karzai claims he made the comments to encourage more candor between the two countries, which have often had a “grudging” relationship in the past. source
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14 Nov 2010 12:01

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World: U.S. bribes Israel so they’ll stop building West Bank settlements

  • $3 billion the amount the U.S. will offer Israel – mostly in the form of security incentives and fighter jets
  • 90 days the amount of time Benny Netanyahu will enforce a freeze on most new construction in the West Bank source
  • » Clarification: There is some contingency going on here. The U.S. will dangle this carrot over Israel’s head to get them to stop the settlements for now, but it could still fall through if Israel doesn’t sign a peace agreement. So it’s kind of a raw deal, but it’s not that raw.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Nov 2010 11:11

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Biz, World: Ireland getting peer pressure to take bailouts to ease debt

  • Anyone know where Ireland can find 15 billion euros by Tuesday? The country of potato bread and U2 (to grossly oversimplify) needs some extra money to allay fears of other, fiscally stronger European countries, such as Germany, as well as to calm local markets, which went haywire on Friday on debt concerns. Ireland denies the need for an immediate bailout (despite a banking system in tatters), but outside sources, such as Barclay’s Capital, suggest that the country could need €80 billion (or $110 billion) in bailouts between 2011 and 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that political needs (including her own) may be in play. “There may be a conflict here between the interests of the financial world and the interests of politicians,” she said. One source suggests the possibility of an Irish default could hurt her crisis-resolution plans. Meanwhile, Ireland plans to release a budget next month it hopes will ease debt concerns. source
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14 Nov 2010 10:33

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World: Rachel & Paul Chandler: Huge ransom needed to set them free

  • 387 days pirates held Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage source
  • » It wasn’t cheap to set them free: Why did it take so long to get them free? Well, there were some ransom issues. First the pirates asked for £4 million in ransom, around $6.45 million dollars. The amount was too much, but they still wanted something. A later ransom, for around £350,000 ($565,000) was intercepted by intermediaries who wanted a cut of the action. Finally, a third ransom, also in the hundreds of thousands range, was accepted, and the Chandlers were let go – but not after being separated and physically abused by their captors.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Nov 2010 14:14

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World: Finally set free, the first thing Aung San Suu Kyi has to say

“People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal. … When the time comes to talk, do not be quiet.” source
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13 Nov 2010 12:42

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World: Haitian microloan firms struggle, but committed to helping poor

  • Haiti has not had a good year. Many people are struggling to get by and need help to survive. For this reason, microloans have become very popular among small-scale entrepreneurs looking to get by, but even they are having trouble in the wake of absolute destruction of much of the country:
  • 30% the lowest interest rate one will likely find on a microloan from Haiti, which is very reliant on them in the wake of the earthquake
  • 53% the percentage of one lender’s microloans in Haiti that were late after the qake – a staggeringly high number that makes it hard for lenders
  • 18% of microloans have defaulted or risk doing so in Haiti this year; in most third-world countries, it’s more like 2-3 percent source
  • » However, they’re still fighting: These firms seen to understand how important their services are to Hatians, so they’ve used various methods to raise funds to offer the high-risk loans. While they’re a ways off from, say, India’s broad microlending program, they are expanding their work so that they can offer a wider variety of services to the people that need it most.
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