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World News Once a Week |
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| Published Thursday, September 11, 2008 |
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| Reuters/Eric Thayer: A man braces for a wave in Key West, Florida. |
Issue 116
It's a variation on the old "man bites dog" journalism rule. A politician landing in hot water for cooking the books is unremarkable. But a politician using hot water
to cook pork leg on television? That can make international headlines — as Thailand's president/top chef Samak Sundaravej
found out the hard way. Haiti's embattled citizens could have used a few million portions of Samak's sikrong kai tomfuk, however, after the country suffered through yet another catastrophic hurricane. Speaking of hot air, MSNBC pulled the ol' switcheroo on its most prominent talking heads just as the US presidential race began to veer into total absurdity.
Elsewhere, Russia played nice at the international bargaining table, Sri Lanka isolated itself in advance of a military offensive against rebels, and Angola's government finally seemed to follow through on long-overdue promises of democracy. And some 300 feet beneath Western Europe, a mammoth particle accelerator prepared
to crash protons together at mind-boggling speeds (stay tuned for an upcoming interview on the subject). But while a job at the Large Hadron Collider may require advanced degrees in physics, the kids these days prefer to explore the space-time continuum by smoking salvia
and falling down.
- Benjamin Hart |
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| Top Stories |
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US launches Fannie-Freddie takeover
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The US government announced the federal conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday, in a bid to ease the country's ongoing credit crisis. The mortgage giants' fate
had been uncertain since their stock prices plummeted in mid-July, prompting the Treasury Department to declare its support for the lenders. Sunday's seizure will transform the publicly traded corporations into government-administered agencies.
Politicians and economists are divided over Fannie and Freddie's future. Possible approaches range from mandating complete
government control to supervising a free-market liquidation, with a consensus yet to emerge. Regardless of the long-term plan, one thing is clear: this bailout is going to cost the
US big bucks.
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Angolans cast historic ballots
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Angola conducted its first open elections in 16 years last week, a sign that the government's long-standing promises of democratic
reform may come to pass. Since the country emerged from a 27-year civil war in 2002, the ruling MPLA party has garnered widespread support for its economic policies and infrastructural developments, but faced criticism for
undermining free and fair elections.
After official tallies put the MPLA's share of the popular vote at around 80%, Angola's main opposition party, UNITA, formally conceded defeat, in effect validating the dramatic results. Though some elections observers voiced concern over
coercion at the polls, it appears that the MPLA will remain in power with a mandate from the people.
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I don't like Ike: storm smashes Caribbean
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The hurricane season can't end quickly enough for the Caribbean. Ike — the most recent of this year's major storms — slammed Haiti on Saturday,
killing hundreds of people, leaving more than one million homeless, and laying waste to an already shaky infrastructure. While
aid workers attempt to reach those hardest hit, extensive flooding is impeding their efforts.
Ike's next stop was Havana, Cuba, a city still recovering from Gustav's punch two weeks ago. Thanks to orderly evacuations, however, authorities reported only four deaths. Still, the storm damaged historic
buildings, destroyed crops, and left nearly a million coastal evacuees wondering if they had homes left standing. Ike now
appears headed across the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas.
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| Newswire |
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| Politics |
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Russia agrees to Georgia pullout
Following Monday's meeting with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev announced a plan to withdraw all troops from Georgia within the next month. Medvedev also agreed to allow European Union
observers into the region to monitor local conditions.
| Guardian | Deutsche Welle |
Thai prime minister ousted for cookery
Protestors have tried to unseat Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej with allegations of election fraud and corruption, but the premier's tom kha gai may be his undoing. Thailand's Constitutional Court demanded Samak's resignation on Tuesday, citing his paid turn as host
of a television cooking show.
| Times, UK | Bangkok Post |
Bhutto's husband elected president
Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated politician Benazir Bhutto, was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of Pakistan since Pervez Musharraf took power in a 1999 coup.
Western allies hope that Zardari will clamp down on escalating insurgent violence.
| New York Times | Telegraph |
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| Science & Technology |
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Trustbuster targets Internet titans
The US Justice Department hired hotshot lawyer Sanford Litvack to investigate possible antitrust violations in Google and Yahoo!'s proposed advertising partnership. Though a finalized deal would net the companies more than 80% of online-ad revenue, Google may bow out to avoid legal complications.
| Wall Street Journal | InformationWeek |
Protons collide, physicists rejoice
Scientists fired the Large Hadron Collider's first proton on Wednesday, kicking off a new era of physics research at the long-awaited particle accelerator. The $8 billion
project, designed to materialize hypothetical particles, spans the Swiss-French border with a 17-mile-long tunnel.
| Guardian | New Scientist |
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| Blogosphere |
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Network shakes up news team
MSNBC announced that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will no longer anchor the cable channel's political coverage. Lefty bloggers decried
what they viewed as the Peacock kowtowing to pressure from the McCain campaign, while others deemed the shake-up an overdue necessity.
| Unclaimed Territory (Salon) | TV Newser |
Brady Bunch now just a bunch
News broke on Monday that New England Patriots quarterback and all-around golden boy Tom Brady is out for the season with an ACL tear. Pats fans are shocked and chagrined, while their competitors see a rare opportunity to compete with the
league villains.
| Bill Simmons (ESPN) | Fanhouse |
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| The Week in Pictures |
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Click to see the full-size image and caption.
 Reuters/KCNA
 Reuters/Djordje Kojadinovic
 Reuters/Claro Cortes
 Reuters/Jose Manuel Ribeiro
 Reuters/Robert Galbraith
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*Unless otherwise noted, all photos are courtesy of Reuters.
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| Local Stories |
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Would-be bombers found guilty
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| Reuters/Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi |
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Three of the eight men charged with plotting a wave of 2006 UK terrorist attacks were found guilty of conspiracy to commit
murder. However, the jury rejected prosecutors' claims that the Islamic extremists were planning to blow up transatlantic airliners.
| Scotsman | Independent |
Sri Lanka nixes foreign relief
As Sri Lanka's lengthy civil war enters a deadlier phase, officials banned foreign aid workers from Tamil-controlled areas in the country's north. After 25 years of tit-for-tat strikes, the military is seeking to reclaim the rebel
regions with a decisive victory.
| Times, UK | BBC |
Turn on, tune in, fall down?
The US government published estimates of recreational salvia divinorum use for the first time — a milestone for the legal psychedelic's popularity. While the herb has long played a role in shamanic
ritual, a surge in its mainstream visibility has some lawmakers seeking a ban.
| New York Times | Dallas Morning News |
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| Masthead |
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Managing Editor
Benjamin Hart
Deputy Editor
Eli Dvorkin
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Publishers
Mark Mangan
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Design
Groundwave Design Corp.
Production Design
Jonathan Rahmani
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