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Friday, November 28, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:32 PM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: EDF: Brussels Reclaims 888 million euros. That figure is what the group has been ordered to pay France by a commission on competition. Further raising questions for France and Europe about how competition is to be channeled, managed and regulated.
Liberation: UMP Excludes Veil From Schools. Now there's a law.
Ouest-France: Windmills have lead in their wings. With enviros and others blocking their construction as eyesores, threats to birds, etc.
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posted by gbarto at 1:21 AM:
With another Turkey Day over, here's the TurkeyBlog's French news headlines:Le Monde: Bush In Baghdad Raises Troop Morale
Libé: Bush Hunts Turkey and Votes in Baghdad.
Ouest-France: Tobacco: Raffarin Spreads Out the Rise (in costs), limiting the rate at which the new, government directed price cuts kick in.
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Wednesday, November 26, 2003
posted by turkeysister at 8:41 PM:
The Turkey's phone lines are out again, so the Turkeysister is posting the French News. I have the flu, so I can't be as persnickety as I ought, so there aren't accents everywhere there should be, and please take the translations as Loose--that's why I've included the original.Le Monde: L'AIEA adopte une résolution contre l'Iran sans saisir l'ONU (The International Agency of Atomic Energy adopts a resolution against Iran without catching the UN)
La Liberation: "Queen Mary 2": une passerelle pour du "materiel" (Queen Mary 2: made for goods, not people)
Also interesting at Libe: En ImagesMorituri te salutant is the text under a picture of a turkey (pretty obviously at a farm). Link leads to a story about what Americans do at Thanksgiving. I'll let you all make the judgments.
Ouest-France: not updated yet.
Le Figaro: Les Deputes approuvent l'Europe des vingt-cinq (The deputies approve a Europe of 25) French deputies have voted to accept the enlargement of the EU.
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posted by gbarto at 4:05 AM:
Air Bag Crazy: Late Deploying Safety Devices May Injure Your Rescuers - or Kill YouLiddy Dole, call your office. There can be too much auto safety. Once the government pushed through air bags and seat belts, the technology started being modified and expanded in surprising ways. And not so surprising ways. More is better seems to be the philosophy in a lot of cases, but it isn't. As in: multiple air bags, intended to turn the car into one big cushion, don't always all inflate on impact. Which means they may go off when rescue workers cause secondary impacts working apart cars to get at the occupants. Two rescue workers would have been killed they not been wearing helmets after an airbag exploded in their faces as they worked at an accident scene. A passenger in process of being freed from her car was killed by a late deploying airbag last year, as well. Admits one official, these things are designed for protection at the moment of impact. From that moment on, "all bets are off." The NHTSA is starting to investigate. Read all about it in this Washington Post story.
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posted by gbarto at 3:49 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Assembly Pronounces Upon Enlargement of EU. The Communists and Socialists are having some tangles, given that the debate is being run by the center right. But ultimately, the measure in favor is likely to pass.
Also in Le Monde: The US will reduce its financial aid to Israel in 2004 - in punishment for expansionary settlement activity. Which seems fair enough: The US has been trying to stabilize the whole of the Middle East and some of Israel's actions have not helped us either in advancing our vision for stability over there or in protecting Israel's cause as we understand it. To be sure, Israel has every right to pursue its security in the manner it sees as necessary. But that right does not extend to the right to expect US financing to do it. It will be curious to see how the Euro-left and the Pat Buchanans of the world respond: will their hatred of Bush push them to support Israel's cause or their hatred of Israel force an admission that Bush isn't all bad? (Answer: They'll claim it's part of a larger Zionist plot and that this will give America a freer hand to boost Israel in shadows. They may be right.)
Liberation: America Chooses Valencia Route. The next America's Cup will be there.
Ouest-France: Europe Torn Apart At Crucial Moment. Here's the summary graf:
In not sanctionning France and Germany for their deficits, the principal European finance ministers have opened up a major crisis: the Stability Pact, a sort of bible for rigorous management of public finances, has practically been shattered.Here's Liberation on the same subject: A Growth Crisis That Destabilizes the Union.
Le Figaro: Iter: The Europeans Choose Cadarache. Iter is an experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor being built by the EU. The site in Bouche-du-Rhone (in France) beat out the Spanish site, Vandellos, which was its main competition.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:56 AM:
Cicero points out this BBC story on the plight of Sri Lankan "guest workers" in various nations. Of particular concern, the number of maids who get sent back when they complain of being raped by their employers - with no action being taken against the employers. Now an informal survey: Who's surprised to learn that Saudi Arabia is among the worst offenders in this?* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:19 AM:
Natalie Solent reports on the latest fad for British busybodies in health law enforcement - stifling entrepreneurialism and shutting off access to an African delicacy of choice - meat that has been, in effect, torched. Let's hope they don't find out about Burger King's flame broiling.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:07 AM:
French news headlines:Libération: Europe Enlarges, Doubts Grow. The Assembly is expected to ratify the admission of ten new members into the EU - something each country must do before the Union can expand.
Le Monde: Chirac and Blair Affirm A "Cordial Confidence" - notwithstanding disagreement on Iraq and European defense.
Ouest-France: Skies Clear Between London and Paris.
Le Figaro: Internet Economy Finds Second Wind - concludes Le Figaro in noting, among other things, Yahoo's purchase of China's largest search-engine company.
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Monday, November 24, 2003
posted by gbarto at 9:22 PM:
For fans of unusual presentations of classical music: Just got an e-mail that PBS has put up a website relating to the Eroica Trio special set to air Dec. 9 at 10p.m. It can be found here.* * *
Sunday, November 23, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:55 PM:
Cicero has a nice reading list for thinking about where the US is and how it got there. Haven't gotten through it, but intend to. Interesting selections.From Woodrow Wilson:
And there is a deeper thing involved than even equality of right among organized nations. No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property.And from George Washington:
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.Cicero and I disagree, of course, on the war, and the documents he has put together cast the present administration in a distinctly Wilsonian light, while showing it on a collision course with what some of our wiser founders warned against. All of which make this list the more essential for those who - on either side of the issue - want to approach their - surely - evolving understanding of what's going on in the world today with intellectual honesty.
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posted by gbarto at 11:36 PM:
More French news, though not what's topping the headlines:LE MONDE: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL REJECTS SEVERAL MEASURES OF THE NEW LAW ON IMMIGRATION CONTROL
Headline by way of Cicero at the Conservative Observer. You can read the story there.
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posted by gbarto at 11:30 PM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: End of Shevardnadze's Reign. As Foreign Minister, he helped ease in the end of the Soviet Union. But as president of Georgia, he presided over a mess of corruption. When the protests got big enough, he decided it was time to step down.
Le Figaro: Shevardnadze Abandons Power.
Ouest-France: Shevardnadze forced to resign.
Libération: Raffarin in Rear Guard - boldly leading where the public has already gone, which is often in the opposite direction of his stated policy goals. Libé takes a moment to chastise and to gloat.
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posted by gbarto at 10:33 PM:
Gary Condit, Scott Peterson and now this... Is there something strange in the water in Modesto? And will the police get through this one quicker than the Peterson case? Mark Geragos, call your office... we have a new client!Robber Forgets to Cut Eye Holes in MaskTaken from AP report on AOL's Strange But True
MODESTO, Calif. (Nov. 19) - Police said a masked man who robbed a Modesto bank Monday forgot to cut eye holes into his disguise, occasionally lifting up a corner of the flannel cloth to see his feet as he fumbled his way through the heist, and crashing into the Oak Valley Community Bank's steel door frame on the way out.
The robbery was successful, and the man, who was wearing a pink shirt, big white gardening gloves and tight jeans, was last seen driving away with an accomplice and an undisclosed amount of money, Detective Tom Blake said.
Police did not return messages Tuesday asking whether the man had been caught.
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