Strange goings-on here in Lebanon ...

Published: 01 September 2007

Stories that just don't seem to make it into print.

Did you know that the Hizbollah "Party of God" has installed its own private communications network in the south of Lebanon, stretching from the village of Zawter Sharqiya all the way to Beirut? And why, I wonder, would it be doing that? Well, to safeguard its phones in the event that the Israelis immobilise the public mobile system in the next war. Next war? Well, if there's not going to be another war in Lebanon, why is Hizbollah building new roads north of the Litani river, new bunkers, new logistics far outside the area of operations of the Nato-led UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon? continue...

Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11

Published: 25 August 2007

Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver". continue...

Lebanon cries victory, but is it too soon?

Robert Fisk: Lebanon cries victory, but is it too soon?
Published: 06 September 2007

The victory of the Lebanese army at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp – the killing of up to 100 al-Qa'ida-type insurgents at the cost of 163 Lebanese soldiers and 42 civilians – is being greeted in the country with "trumpetings" and "hootings" worthy of the country's greatest poet, Khalil Gibran.

For three days now, the newspapers have devoted their front pages to photographs of Lebanese troops astride their ageing US-made personnel carriers, giving "V" signs, firing in the air and succumbing to the traditional warriors' reward of rice and rose-water. continue...

Bollywood Takes On Hollywood

Anay Mann / Photoink-Contact for Newsweek
No Bluster: Screwvala (right) at work

Bigger Than Bollywood
Meet the man who is changing India's film industry—and gunning for Hollywood, USA.

By Jason Overdorf

Newsweek International

Sept. 10, 2007 issue - Ronnie Screwvala is the front runner in the race to become Bollywood's Jack Warner—the man who began the transformation of parochial U.S. cinema into its modern global form. Yet Screwvala is rarely picked out of a crowd in India, let alone in the United States. But Hollywood insiders know him well, for producing the "The Namesake," the groundbreaking hit about Indian immigrants, and for coproducing a Chris Rock comedy ("I Think I Love My Wife"). Now he is coproducing "The Happening," a new sci-fi thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense") that seems destined to vault him into the big leagues. With a budget of $57 million, it will cost as much as 10 Indian blockbusters, setting a new bar for Bollywood. "Our ambition is to be a global Indian entertainment company—there's no reason we can't make big-budget Hollywood movies, too," says Screwvala. continue...

A model immigrant, betrayed by Britain

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 05 September 2007

When Damilola Ajagbonna first sat down in a British classroom eight years ago his thick Nigerian accent earned him the nickname "fresh off the boat", while in the playground he was shunned because he didn't own a tennis racket.

But Mr Ajagbonna, now 19, was determined to succeed, and last year he was offered a place at Cambridge University to study social and political science.

Today Mr Ajagbonna, described by a judge as a "remarkable" young man, faces being forcibly removed to Nigeria because he was six weeks late claiming British citizenship under immigration rules for children.

continue...

The greatest boom the world has ever seen

Published: 05 September 2007

Beijing: China's pre-Olympics economic boom has ratcheted up a few clicks. With less than a year to run, it is not just the main stadium site that is humming; the entire city is a great building site. Not only is it rushing to complete new hotels and other facilities ahead of the games, it is also sprucing itself up: fixing pavements, repainting shopfronts, opening restaurants.

You can measure the China boom in the statistics – growth running at more than 11 per cent in the first half of this year – but nothing can prepare the visitor for the actuality. This is not just the greatest boom on earth at the moment – it is the greatest boom the world has ever known. In 2005, China passed the UK to become the world's fourth-largest economy; either this year or next, it will pass Germany to become the world's third largest. It is hard not to see it passing Japan to become the second largest within about a decade, and then it is at least plausible that within a generation it will pass the United States to become the biggest.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/hamish_mcrae/article2927068.ece

Hawk on Roosevelt Island?

Video Clip of a hawk, osprey or falcon, who visited Roosevelt Island over the weekend.(LaborDay 2007)

Sales Prices: How Right Digits Affect Perception of Discounts

Science Daily

The amount of the discount may be less important than the numerical value of the farthest right digit, explains a new study from the Journal of Consumer Research. Keith S. Coulter (Clark University) and Robin A. Coulter (University of Connecticut) are the first to identify a visual distortion effect that may influence how consumers look at sale prices. continue...

One Winning Ticket for $314M Powerball

Associated Press 08.26.07, 8:38 PM ET

RICHMOND, Ind. -
The only winning ticket for a $314.3 million Powerball lottery prize was sold in this city on the Indiana-Ohio state line, lottery officials said Sunday.

Lottery officials won't know who holds that ticket until someone comes forward, said Mark Sirkin, a spokesman for the Hoosier Lottery. continue...

Most Searched New York Times Words and Phrases

http://www.nytimes.com/gst/mostsearched.html

The Record of Your Life as a Digital Archive

By ERIC A. TAUB

Published: August 16, 2007

WHEN Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Karen Duncan was ordered to leave her uptown neighborhood. continue...

Calisthenics for the Older Mind, on the Home Computer

WHEN Charline and Dan Truitt of Irvine, Calif., owners of a company that audits mortgage lenders, started misplacing their keys and blanking on names, they made all the usual jokes about senior moments. But it was no laughing matter when Mrs. Truitt, 62, started forgetting client appointments. more...

Powerball numbers for 08/22/2007 are:

12 37 40 48 50 Powerball 37
Powerplay 4

The estimated Grand Prize was $252,100,000 ($117,800,000 cash).
There was no Grand Prize Winner.

The next Powerball drawing will be on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 with
an estimated Grand Prize of $300,000,000 ($140,300,000 cash).

Looking after yourself is the key to university success

How do you get the most from university? By keeping both your body and mind in shape, says Dr Rodger Charlton
Published: 16 August 2007

Staying healthy while at university or college doesn't have to be difficult if you get organised, are sensible about what you do and seek help quickly if you do fall ill. continue...

Expect More Damage from US Kaleidoscopic Diplomacy

by Rami G. Khouri
Released: 1 Aug 2007

BEIRUT -- The riddle of American foreign policy in the Middle East this week became even more puzzling, following the announcement of major new military aid and sales packages to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and smaller Arab countries. The totals will top $70 billion over the coming ten years. The United States justifies this as part of its policy of fighting radicalism and terrorism, supporting moderates, and promoting an Arab-Israeli peace process. continue...

Missing the Epic Story of the Middle East

by Rami G. Khouri
Released: 11 Aug 2007

BEIRUT -- I had a very unusual experience Friday morning as I was going through my pleasant early morning routine while sitting in my easy chair on our balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, reading the newspapers, drinking coffee, listening to the BBC radio news, and watching my water turtle Jerry show me his back flips and other new maneuvers which he perfected overnight while the rest of us slept. The unusual thing was that there was not a single news item about the Middle East on the BBC radio news. continue...

Iraq's Air 'Straits Question'

by Richard Bulliet
Released: 9 Aug 2007

For three centuries, down to the end of World War II, Europe's diplomats were troubled by the Straits Question: the waterway linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Ottoman Empire controlled the straits -- the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosphorus -- and barred passage to foreign warships. And this effectively prevented Russia from becoming a Mediterranean power by plugging the only outlet for their Black Sea fleet.

Today, Iraq’s skies pose a new Straits Question. And Iraqi air space is the "plug" for any Iranian air power. continue...

Arab Reform Running in Place

by Rami G. Khouri
Released: 15 Aug 2007

BEIRUT -- The “reform” industry in the Arab world has been on a roller-coaster for the past 15 years or so, soaring high at moments of exhilaration and ambitious expectations, then plummeting to earth in gut-wrenching disappointment. Reforming prevailing political, economic, security and administrative systems in the Arab world is a critical prerequisite for any hopes for stability, prosperity and a normal life for the majority of citizens. continue...

R.I.P.: Nonproliferation

by Immanuel Wallerstein
Released: 15 Aug 2007

The concept of nuclear non-proliferation has been in trouble since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. If the initial shock led to much sentiment worldwide to banish somehow this weapon, this sentiment has been losing support ever since. The concept did limp along for 62 years, which is pretty long, considering how improbable it always was that any country would renounce access to powerful weapons that other countries possessed. However, the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative, officially announced on July 27, 2007, can be considered the final nail in the coffin of a hopeless idea. continue...