Georgia summit
1 Belgium Nato foreign ministers met in Brussels for an emergency
summit, called by America, to discuss how to respond to Russia’s invasion of
Georgia. The alliance warned it could not “continue with business as usual”
until Russia got its troops out of Georgia. Russia responded by saying it
would halt all military cooperation with Nato.
The alliance also pledged to deepen ties with Georgia by setting up a special
commission to foster closer links. Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet
leader, justified the invasion in The New York Times. He said: “Russia did
not want this crisis. The Russian leadership is in a strong enough position.
It did not need a little victorious war.”
Car bomb killings
2 Algeria A total of 54 people died and dozens more were injured in a
series of car bombs that hit military targets and workers at the site of a
new dam. The largest toll, of 43 dead, was at a police academy in Issers.
The victims were students queuing to take an exam.
The car bomb was the deadliest in Algeria since an attack on United Nations
buildings in Algiers in December 2007 in which 41 died. Assir Abdul Hai, an
Algerian journalist, told Al-Jazeera that Al-Qaeda is the prime suspect. He
said it had adopted a new strategy of targeting the police and armed forces.
Banking wobble
3 America Fears about the stability of major banks led stock markets
around the world to fall. The Dow Jones sank 1.14% on Tuesday and others
followed suit after Professor Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist of
the International Monetary Fund, said that a high-profile casualty among
American banks was now likely. “We’re not just going to see mid-sized banks
go under,” said Rogoff, “we’re going to see a whopper, we’re going to see a
big one.”
The pound also fell heavily against the dollar and the euro. “Sterling may
stabilise for a while but its decline is likely to resume soon – and go
far,” predicted The Wall Street Journal.
State of siege
4 Mexico The governor of a Mexican state has called for a war on
organised crime after more than 43 people, including a baby, were killed in
the worst outbreak of gangland-style violence in Chihuahua this year. More
than 3,000 troops and paramilitary police have been sent there.
José Reyes Baeza, the governor, called on President Felipe Calderon to review
tactics, demanding an improvement in intelligence gathering methods and a
purge of corrupt policemen. Chihuahua has been a battleground in a drugs war
between traffickers trying to gain control of key routes into the United
States. The state has seen more than 800 killings this year. According to El
Universal, the number of drug-related assassinations in Mexico so far this
year has passed the total of 2,673 who died in 2007.
New windy city
5 America A plan to turn New York into a giant wind farm, possibly
looking like the picture left, with turbines on high buildings, won the
support of Michael Bloomberg, the mayor, but the tabloids were not so sure.
Bloomberg suggested there could be “wind farms atop our bridges and
skyscrapers”. The New York Post promptly published a “windy city” montage of
the Empire State Building with a propeller attached to its antenna. The
Daily News attached three more propellers to a picture of the Brooklyn
bridge. But the mayor was unrepentant: “We shouldn’t automatically say that
things can’t work,” he said.
Men only town
6 Australia The mayor of a remote mining town has caused uproar by
calling for “beauty-disadvantaged” females to move there to help tackle the
shortage of women, The Australian reported. John Moloney, from Mount Isa in
northern Queensland, where men outnumber women five to one, said men would
be less fussy about looks because of the lack of choice. In 2006 there were
819 women aged 20-24, compared with 994 in 1996.
“We should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to
proceed to Mount Isa,” Molony said. The Sydney Morning Herald said that he
responded to feminist criticism by saying: “I think the women who turned up
at that protest rally are beauty-disadvantaged themselves and can’t get over
it, so they attack me.”
On yer bike
7 New Zealand A judge ruled that Auckland’s annual Boobs on Bikes
parade, in which bare-breasted women parade through the city centre on
motorbikes, could go ahead after the council sought to have it banned. Tens
of thousands of office workers, mainly men, lined the streets to watch about
30 partially clothed women who were promoting an exhibition of erotica.
“I told the girls beforehand to keep the jiggling to a minimum and not to do
anything that would be deemed offensive,” said Steve Crow, a self-styled
“porn king” who organised the action.
Salmon surprise
8 America Anthony Franz has claimed a 9ft tapeworm got into his body
from a salmon salad he ordered from Chicago’s Shaw’s Crab House in August
2006. A pathologist said the only source was “undercooked fish, such as
salmon”, according to court papers. Franz is suing the Lettuce Entertain You
Enterprises, the restaurant owner, for $100,000 (£54,000) for pain, time off
work and “lost enjoyment of life”. Carrol Symank, the vice-president of food
safety for Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, denied negligence.
An incorruptible
9 Zambia The country faces a power vacuum after the death of President
Levy Mwanawasa, 59, a politician with a reputation for probity who was also
a fierce critic of his autocratic neighbour, President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe. During one row he accused Mugabe of turning his country into a
“sinking Titanic”. Mugabe accused him of being a stooge of western
intelligence agencies and of selling out to the “white man”.
Mwanawasa suffered a stroke six weeks ago and was taken to a Paris hospital
where he died. Under the constitution a new election must be held within 90
days.
Saddam’s loco
10 Iraq Saddam Hussein’s luxurious private train, equipped with
chandeliers and heavy Italian-made curtains, is being put back into service
to help ease a shortage of rolling stock, according to Iraqi officials. The
23-carriage French-built train was hidden after the American-led invasion in
2003 and was never looted. The train will take passengers between Baghdad
and Basra from next month.
Saddam apparently used the train once, shortly after becoming president in
1979, for a trip to Basra. The carriages are air-conditioned and have
television screens, a library and living rooms. The train also has several
restaurants.
The Royal Train, the Royal Ceremonial Carriage, the green Bentleys and the tribe of Land Rovers should also be used by the public.
Jane Fleming, WHITTLESEY, United Kingdom