Ego So Big Reality Doesn’t Count
The fury of a people whose hopes were raised and then dashed
As Mubarak clings on… What now for Egypt?
To the horrorof Egyptians and the world, President Hosni Mubarak – haggard and apparently disoriented – appeared on state television last night to refuse every demand of his opponents by staying in power for at least another five months. The Egyptian army, which had already initiated a virtual coup d’état, was nonplussed by the President’s speech which had been widely advertised – by both his friends and his enemies – as a farewell address after 30 years of dictatorship. The vast crowds in Tahrir Square were almost insane with anger and resentment.
The Starve For The Dear Leader
North Korea is begging friends and foes alike for food aid while the elite of the regime prepares to celebrate the 69th birthday of Kim Jong-Il on February 16th.
Starving North Korea sends out SOS for food aid
The requests for assistance began last autumn, the South Korean newspaper the JoongAng Daily reported, but have become “frantic” in the last two months.
“Since the end of last year, North Korea has been asking the US, international organisations and almost every country it has diplomatic ties with, including nations in Europe and Southeast Asia, to assist it with food,” the paper quoted a unidentified source as saying.
Problem? What Problem?
Hungary accused over red sludge leak
GREENPEACE WANTS the EU to force Hungary to take action over toxic waste the environmental group says is still leaking from an alumina plant that caused a deadly disaster last October.Ten people were killed when a waste pool burst its banks and sent more than one million cubic metres of corrosive red sludge surging across 40sq km, inundating local villages and forcing the evacuation of residents.
Hungary’s government, which now holds the rotating EU presidency, took control of the MAL Hungarian Aluminium facility and pledged to clean up the area and compensate victims.
I Hear What Your Saying You Just Don’t Know It
Thousands caught up in newspaper’s phone hacks
British police will contact thousands of people whose mobile phones may have been targeted by the News of The World, an indication of the scale of the scandal at the heart of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.Police have long insisted only a small number of people were believed to have been spied upon by the newspaper, which employed a private detective to break into the voicemail boxes of the paper’s targets and eavesdrop on their private messages.
How About Something Of Better Quality
Second-hand goods from the United States have long been a staple in Ghana, but now the country is seeking to get second-hand goods off its shelves.
Ghana says second-hand clothes are no longer good enough
Dakar, Senegal
For better or worse, second-hand T-shirts from the US often make up the uniform for billions of people throughout Africa.
The Idiots Don’t Know What The Other Idiots Will Do
House Republicans divided on spending cuts; for some, it’s $100 billion or bust
An already wobbly week for House Republicans turned chaotic Thursday as their unruly new majority flatly rejected a spending plan crafted by House leaders, saying its cuts fell far short of fulfilling a campaign pledge to slice $100 billion from federal programs.
House leaders offered to redo the package but were struggling to identify the massive and unprecedented cuts that will be required to meet their goal. Dissatisfied conservatives, meanwhile, were pressing for even sharper reductions that could prove difficult to push through the House, much less the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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