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12 Jul 2010 21:01

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World: Fidel Castro: The U.S. needs to, you know, stop causing nuclear war

  • Instead of taking practical steps towards the reduction of the chilling threat of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran or any other part of the world, the United States is moving towards the control of the vital oil-producing regions of the Middle East – with violent means should other means fail.
  • Former Cuban president Fidel Castro • Speaking in a rare television interview tonight on the United States’ foreign policy, which he says is slowly building up to nuclear war with Iran. It’s an oddly-timed event, seemingly designed to make sure Castro’s stance on foreign policy was still part of the discussion. It worked – he’s currently Twitter’s top trending topic. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 10:17

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World: Uganda’s World Cup excitement shattered by deadly blasts

  • If you want to fight, why don’t you attack soldiers or military installations instead of fighting innocent people watching football?
  • Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni • On the attacks that killed at least 74 people, including one American. One of the attacks – which had multiple blasts – occurred in the capitol, Kampala, while people were watching the World Cup final yesterday on a big-screen TV at a rugby center. The other took place 50 minutes earlier in a popular restaurant district. Another 71 were hospitalized in the attacks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jul 2010 09:00

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World: Al-Qaeda reportedly had its sights on bombing Norwegian targets

  • 3 dudes were arrested in Norway,
    that hotbed of terrorism source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jul 2010 08:56

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U.S., World: Russia and the U.S. all ready to exchange some spies!

  • If at last he is freed — not in the way we wanted, because we wanted him to restore his good name, but it is difficult to do it given our judicial system — at least he will be freed in this way. If he leaves today, it will happen quietly.
  • Lawyer Anna Stavitskaya • Regarding her client, Russian scientist Igor V. Sutyagin, and his possible pending release as soon as today. The scientist, currently being held for treason in Russia, will be reportedly exchanged for ten reported Russian spies as part of a prisoner swap. The U.S. and Russia have neither confirmed nor denied it, although it’s been widely reported and Stavitskaya says Sutyagin verbally agreed to the exchange. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jul 2010 11:57

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World: Snaps: Fox News completely ignoring the Climategate findings

  • Reuters is also greatly underplaying the story at the very bottom of their front page. But at least they’re playing it, unlike Fox News, which spilled a lot of ink on it when it first broke. It’s only on their world page as a result of partner member The Wall Street Journal running a story about it (and them linking to it at the very bottom of the page). While not the biggest story on the digest, the initial controversy around Climategate – often a punching bag for skeptics of climate change – makes it a pretty important story to have something about. Other sites are covering it like so:
  • CNN: Lead storyIn a lot of ways, the controversy around climate change is stronger in the U.S. than elsewhere in the world, so big play here makes sense.
  • Guardian: Lead StoryNo individual source owned the Climategate story as much as The Guardian did, so it’s not surprising to see them giving it big play.

 


  • Google news: A lead itemWhile the Russian spy swap and the NBA’s free agency craziness are ahead of it, Google’s algorithms are giving it decent play.
  • BBC: Secondary storyDespite the fact that the controversy is based around a British university, the BBC chose to play up Nicolas Sarkozy instead.

 

  • New York Times: DownpageWhile given decent play, it’s not the site’s lead story this morning. They went with the Russian spy-trading story instead.
  • MSNBC: DownpageYou have to go nearly halfway down the page to see the site covering this at all, which is pretty strange if you ask us.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jul 2010 10:15

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World: “Climategate” scientists not unethical, just not very open

  • We went through this very carefully and we concluded that these behaviors did not damage our judgment of the integrity, the honesty, the rigor with which they had operated as scientists.
  • “Climategate” investigator Muir Russell • Presenting his findings on scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit. While the 160-page report largely vindicates their research, it does reveal that they didn’t use “the proper degree of openness” with public information requests. Which one might say led to the whole “see! we knew they were lying to us!” mess you see today. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jul 2010 09:50

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World: Nicolas Sarcozy + L’Oreal + illegal donations = A powdery mess

How many world leaders could conceivably find themselves in a ethics scandal with a cosmetics heiress? Just one. Our boy Nick Sarcozy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Jul 2010 11:19

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World: Israeli soldiers are gonna face charges for their conduct in Gaza

  • How bad the 2008 conflict was is up for debate. Investigators for the Israeli government looked into 150 separate incidents of possible misconduct during late 2008’s Operation Cast Lead. Allegations include manslaughter and, in one case, using a Palestinian man as a “human shield.” How many people died in the incident, and how many of those were civilians? Depends on who you ask:
  • 1,400 estimated Palestinian deaths, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights; they say most were non-combatant
  • 1,166 estimated Palestinian deaths, according to the Israeli government, which says 60 percent of those were “terror operatives” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jul 2010 11:11

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World: Caster Semenya can run again – as a woman, not a man

Fans of comeback stories will like this one. After nearly a year of often-mean-spirited gender second-guessing, Semenya will get back on the track. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jul 2010 10:52

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World: The British government spends lots of money on iPhone apps

  • £10k
    to £40k     spent to build iPhone apps for the government
  • £94 million spent to design Web sites – anyone say “wasteful”? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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