Monday, June 11, 2007

Correo de Noticias al 11/6/07


http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/430507.html

Es transparencia antídoto contra la corrupción: Calderón

Celebra el Presidente la aprobación por 20 congresos locales de la reforma al artículo 6 de la Constitución, que permitirá homologar los niveles de transparencia en todo el país.

http://eluniversalgrafico.com.mx/66930.html

Video inédito revela la agresión de halcones

Las imágenes, con soporte de la NBC, reflejan cómo este grupo militar entrenado en EU es sospechoso de la muerte de 39 personas en 1971.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulos/40528.html

Valencia, la ciudad de las artes

Esta capital es conocida en el mundo entero por delicias como la paella, artistas como Joaquín Sorolla, las "Fallas", que son las explosivas fiestas de marzo, o por crueles personajes como la familia Borgia

http://www.milenio.com/index.php/2007/06/11/79233/

La orden de arrestar a los elementos que presuntamente asesinaron a dos mujeres y tres menores de edad en la sierra de Sinaloa, fue girada por un juez militar.

México, D.F.- Un juez militar de la Tercera Región Militar dictó auto de formal prisión contra los 19 elementos que presuntamente asesinaron a dos mujeres y tres menores de edad, luego de un tiroteo en un retén instalado en la sierra de Sinaloa.

http://www.milenio.com/index.php/2007/06/11/79166/

La nueva acusación, de 29 páginas, expuso que Francisco Javier Arellano Felix podría ser ejecutado bajo un artículo de la Ley Federal de Pena de Muerte promulgada en 1994, que lo ubica como líder en el tráfico de drogas.Â

San Diego.- Francisco Javier ‘El tigrillo’ Arellano Félix podría ser el primer narcotraficante que Estados Unidos condena a muerte por el presunto tráfico de estupefacientes sin relación con homicidios, reportó hoy la prensa local.

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2007/06/11/um/m-01436317.htm

Niebla persistente: un fenómeno que no se registraba desde hace 25 años

Aunque desde el Servicio Meteorológico lo consideran normal para esta época del año, les llama la atención la cantidad de días de permanencia. No se repetía algo así desde mayo de 1982. Está previsto que la presencia de niebla se mantenga también hoy y mañana.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_6739000/6739807.stm

Ordenan a una mujer obispo en Cuba

La Iglesia Episcopal de La Habana ordenó el domingo a la primera mujer obispo de Cuba, América Latina y el Caribe.

http://www.abc.es/20070611/nacional-nacional/nigeriano-fallecido-cuando-deportado_200706111852.html

El nigeriano que murió cuando iba a ser deportado estaba amordazado y presentaba dos contusiones

Agencias/Alicante

El informe preliminar de la autopsia practicada esta mañana al ciudadano nigeriano fallecido el pasado sábado durante el vuelo de Iberia que le trasladaba de Madrid a Lagos, revelan que el fallecido había sido amordazado, no consta que llevara esposas y presentaba dos contusiones leves, según informaron hoy en un comunicado fuentes del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Comunidad Valenciana (TSJCV), que precisaron que la causa exacta de la muerte "no podrá ser establecida hasta que no se conozca el resultado de las pruebas realizadas en el pulmón y el corazón".

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=62726&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

Se desploma captación de remesas

Finanzas - Lunes 11 de junio (15:15 hrs.)

* Afecta la desaceleración de la economía de EU: IMEF

* Sin embargo, se espera un monto por 24 mil mdd

El Financiero en línea

México, de junio.- Las remesas internacionales hacia México han registrado también una tendencia declinante durante varios meses, debido a la desaceleración de la economía de Estados Unidos, aseguró Fernando Niño de Guzmán Lizarazu, presidente del IMEF en Guadalajara.

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=62731&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

Advierte FBI sobre amenazas del terrorismo nuclear

Internacional - Lunes 11 de junio (15:25 hrs.)

* Robert Mueller subraya que el peligro es global y real

* Entrenan a cinco mil especialistas para desactivar cualquier operación en el mercado negro, dice

http://www.nuevoexcelsior.com.mx/27_942.htm

Boicot civil

Miles de ciudadanos estadunidenses se unieron a una campaña nacional para evitar que al menos 12 millones de inmigrantes fueran legalizados.

http://www.nuevoexcelsior.com.mx/27_2520.htm

Chávez ataca a los medios de EU

El presidente dijo que CNN manipula la información que emite sobre su país

http://www.proceso.com.mx/noticia.html?sec=0&nta=51433

Mafia mexicana, redes en Colombia

Édgar téllez

Bogotá, 11 de junio (apro).- En una cárcel de alta seguridad de este país, protegido día y noche por guardias especiales para evitar que lo asesinen y a punto de ser extraditado a Estados Unidos, se encuentra recluido Hernando Gómez Bustamante, alias Rasguño, un poderoso jefe del narcotráfico que se muestra dispuesto a revelar los secretos que posee sobre tres de los principales carteles de la droga de México: el de Sinaloa, el de Juárez y el del Golfo.

http://www.eme-equis.com.mx/071MXFOX01.html

Lorenzo Córdova y John Ackerman

Para Lorenzo Córdova no existe ninguna duda: Vicente Fox cometió un gran pecado durante su sexenio: “Tomó decisiones de Estado con base en resultados de encuestas y no resolvió los problemas mediante acciones políticas”.

http://www.eme-equis.com.mx/071MX69SEXO.html

por Viétnika Batres | la69@eme-equis.com.mx

Tres jóvenes vestidos con jeans y camiseta, la barba crecida, entran a la oficina. Un hombre con camisa, chaleco y corbata los recibe sentado frente a su escritorio. Uno de los que acaban de llegar pregunta al que parece ser su jefe:

—Queremos hacerte una preguntita, ¿se puede decir verga en la tele?

—¿Verga, en la televisión?… Debo consultarlo

http://www.eme-equis.com.mx/071MXLACASCARA_04.html

Óscar Camacho Guzmán

Durante sesenta años los panistas fueron un referente de la lucha cívica y doctrinaria contra el partido de Estado, los vicios del presidencialismo, los abusos del poder en las campañas electorales, el aplastamiento y control de los medios de comunicación y el sometimiento de un partido al mandatario en turno.

Pero en la última década –y conforme el PAN se fue acercando al poder hasta llegar a la Presidencia de la República– todos esos referentes que le dieron identidad durante años se fueron desvaneciendo poco a poco hasta prácticamente borrarse.

El poder se ha convertido para el PAN en una droga, en un brebaje que a cada sorbo va borrando al Dr. Jekyll para sustituirlo por ese monstruo llamado Mr. Hyde.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/11/index.php?section=opinion&article=024a2pol

Iván Restrepo

Aspirinas contra el calentamiento global

Cuando le conviene, nuestro vecino del norte y socio comercial se muestra muy estricto con terceros países al exigir el cumplimiento de normas precisas en favor de la salud y el ambiente. Así pasa, por ejemplo, cuando detiene en la frontera cargamentos de melón, jitomate o fresa alegando que contienen residuos de plaguicidas, razón por la que no pueden estar en la mesa de los estadunidenses. Se ha probado varias veces que ese celo protector es para resguardar las cosechas agrícolas locales y reducir las importaciones de otros países.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/6/11/52919/1884

State Dept. Awarding Contracts to Bolster Bolivia Counterdrug Operations

By Stephen Peacock,

Posted on Mon Jun 11th, 2007 at 05:29:19 AM EST

The U.S. State Dept. is taking steps to continue counterdrug operations in Bolivia, where it is arranging -- and will pay for -- the annual delivery of more than a quarter-million liters of fuel to the Government of Bolivia. According to a contracting document located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, this foreign-assistance program will enable the Morales Administration to carry out air-based operations executed in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy's Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS).

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2100276,00.html

Brown vows to make intelligence independent of politics

Matthew Tempest and agencies

Monday June 11, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

Prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown used a surprise trip to Iraq today to pledge that in future security and intelligence would be kept "independent" of the political process.

In an attempt to draw a line under the erroneous weapons of mass destruction claims and the "dodgy dossier", Mr Brown said he had appointed the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, to make sure that in future any intelligence material put in the public domain was properly verified and validated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2100460,00.html

Rush to modernity 'devastating China's cultural heritage'

Jonathan Watts in Beijing

Monday June 11, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

China has become the land of 1,000 identical cities, a senior government official has warned in an outspoken attack on the country's headlong rush towards modernity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2099916,00.html

The question

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is a superfood?

Emine Saner

Monday June 11, 2007

The Guardian

Broccoli is, Monster Munch isn't. What elevates grub to so-called "superfood" status? According to research by the market analyst Nielsen, we are buying more of them than ever: sales of berries increased by 132% in the past two years, we spent £10m a year more on spinach, and sales of salmon leapt 31%. We are also buying more green tea and soy products.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/us/11returns.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

In Return Home to Mexico Grave, an Industry Rises

CONWAY, Ark. — Héctor Acevedo was 22, in this country illegally and far from his mother when he died last month in a car accident outside of town just across the Arkansas River.

But mother and son were soon reunited. The tight-knit immigrant network rallied to repatriate the body, adding Mr. Acevedo to a procession of thousands of dead Mexicans making their way home each year. A survivor of the accident approached a relative of another victim, who worked in a restaurant owned by one of Mr. Acevedo’s relatives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/magazine/10payne-t.html?em&ex=1181707200&en=14090a6e40af6b56&ei=5087%0A

The Class-Consciousness Raiser

By the time Ruby Payne sat down for lunch, she had been at it for three hours straight, standing alone behind a lectern on a wide stage in a cavernous convention hall, parked between two American flags, instructing an audience of 1,400 Georgians in the hidden rules of class. No notes, no warm-up act, just Ruby, with her Midwestern-by-way-of-East-Texas drawl and her crisp white shirt, her pinstriped business suit and bright red lipstick and blow-dried blond hair, a wireless microphone hooked around her right ear. She had already explained why rich people don’t eat casseroles, why poor people hang their pictures high up on the wall, why middle-class people pretend to like people they can’t stand. She had gone through the difference between generational poverty and situational poverty and the difference between new money and old money, and she had done a riff on how middle-class people are so self-satisfied that they think everyone wants to be middle class.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/11/index.php?section=opinion&article=034a1mun

James Petras

Brasil, Argentina y Bolivia; el vaivén de las clases medias

El comportamiento social y político de la clase media es determinado por su posición e intereses de clase, así como por el contexto político-económico, al cual confronta. En el contexto de un régimen de derecha, con economía en expansión, créditos baratos e importación de bienes de consumo a bajo precio, la clase media es atraída a la derecha. En el contexto de un régimen de derecha con profunda crisis, la clase media puede ser parte de un frente popular amplio, que busque recuperar su pérdida de propiedad, ahorros y empleo. Cuando el régimen es un gobierno antidictatorial, antimperialista y populista, la clase media apoya las reformas democráticas, pero se opone a cualquier radicalización que ecualice condiciones con la clase trabajadora.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/11/index.php?section=opinion&article=a04a1cul

Hermann Bellinghausen

Días extraños

Las canciones urgentes deben ser cantadas, urgentemente, para nuevas cosas y con voces diferentes a las que abruman los oídos de la masa con balbuceos, de los emisores industriales a los reproductores electrónicos en la comodidad del hogar o donde sea. Ese ruido omnipresente que hoy sustituye la música y la letra.

En algo así debieron pensar los Mekons, el excéntrico grupo británico, al grabar en 2003 las piezas que habían compuesto hacia 1977, cuando eran primitivos y estaban muy interesados en el punk, tanto como éste se interesaba en ellos (Punk Rock, Quartestick Records, Chicago, 2004).

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/11/index.php?section=politica&article=004n1pol

Inquietud entre ministros de la Corte por la posible creación de un tribunal constitucional

Calderón avaló por anticipado la decisión sobre la ley Televisa

El Presidente de la República ''ya había leído'' el proyecto de resolución elaborado por Salvador Aguirre Anguiano, el cual le pareció ''muy bueno'', indican fuentes de la SCJN

JESUS ARANDA

La decisión de los ministros de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) sobre la inconstitucionalidad de diversos artículos de la llamada ley Televisa contaba con el aval del presidente de la República, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, antes de que el asunto fuera discutido en sesión pública, a partir del 28 de mayo pasado.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2643939.ece

Brown makes surprise Baghdad visit

PA

Published: 11 June 2007

Chancellor Gordon Brown flew into Baghdad today for a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital.

The prime minister-in-waiting was having talks with premier Nouri Maliki as well as meeting some of the British troops based in Baghdad.

Mr Brown was there to "look and learn" before taking over at No 10 later this month, said his aides.

Strict security surrounded the Chancellor's arrival and reporters travelling with him were banned from disclosing details of his visit in advance.

During Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Baghdad and Basra last month, both locations came under mortar attacks - with shells landing in Basra 60 to 100 yards from where Mr Blair was meeting UK commanders.

Mr Brown told reporters travelling with him: "This is very much an assessment more than anything else, a fact-finding trip."

But when he meets some of the British troops based in the Iraqi capital he is expected to confirm a 3.6% increase in the operational allowance for troops deployed for six months in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking that figure from £2,240 to £2,320 - a rise of £80.

Mr Brown said that in his talks with Mr Maliki he would want to discuss the prospects for political reconciliation in the country and for its economy.

The Chancellor told reporters: "Only 25% of the money allocated is actually being spent because of delays at the centre and at provincial level.

"They are not short here of money to be allocated to infrastructure, the problem is the actual spending of it."

He said he would want to hear suggestions about how to move that process forward and would be making some of his own.

Mr Brown added: "On political reconciliation I want to know how they are going to move forward, and on the economy I want to know that things can move forward, and if I don't have suggestions from them I will put suggestions to them."

Mr Brown was also having talks in the Iraqi capital with the senior British officer, Lt General Graham Lamb, American Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the American Commander of the multi-national force, General David Petraeus.

The Chancellor was accompanied on his visit to Iraq by Defence Secretary Des Browne, who was also with the Prime Minister-in-waiting on his recent visit to Afghanistan.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article2643026.ece

Nine killed and 5,000 evacuated as storms flood eastern Australia

Published: 11 June 2007

Officials urged thousands of Australians to flee their homes as rising floodwaters from three days of wild weather threatened to wash away their homes.

Nine people have been killed since the storms began Friday near the port city of Newcastle, around 140 kilometers (90 miles) north of Sydney.

The unusually strong winds and sea swell were also blamed for pushing a massive coal freighter onto a nearby sand bank, prompting fears of a major oil and fuel spill.

New South Wales state police yesterday recovered the body of a 45-year-old man who was swept into a storm water drain after getting out of his flooded car on Friday night.

At the peak of Friday's wild weather, five members of the same family were swept to their deaths when a section of highway collapsed under their car, plunging them into a swollen creek.

Around 5,000 people in the towns of Maitland and Singleton were ordered to leave their homes late Sunday, as the state's emergency coordinator warned the nearby Hunter River could rise more than 11 meters (36.09 feet) above its normal height, breaching levees and flooding neighborhoods.

Emergency shelters run by charity groups began filling up late Sunday, as an 8:00 p.m. (1000GMT) evacuation deadline came and went.

Hundreds of residents, including many elderly people, waited in the evacuation centers, wrapped in blankets and watching television. Others were lying on mattresses on the floor.

Earlier, Prime Minister John Howard offered financial support to the storm-battered region, and expressed his sympathies to those affected by the storms.

"I know I speak for every Australian in saying that the country is thinking of you and we're heart broken by the loss of lives," he said. "It is an immense disaster."

The storms have also created havoc for utilities. More than 100,000 homes from northern Sydney to the Hunter Valley, near Newcastle, were without power Sunday.

Officials warned it could be days before the electricity is restored.

"Never before has our electricity network sustained such severe damage across such a widespread area," said Geoff Lilliss, an executive with power supplier, Energy Australia. "The extreme weather over the last few days has taken a heavy toll."

http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2636206.ece

Robert Fisk: Lies and outrages... would you believe it?

It was Israel which attacked Egypt after Nasser closed the straits of Tiran

Published: 09 June 2007

When I was a schoolboy, I loved a column which regularly appeared in British papers called "Ripley's Believe It or Not!". In a single rectangular box filled with naively drawn illustrations, Ripley - Bob Ripley - would try to astonish his readers with amazing facts:

"Believe It or Not, in California, an entire museum is dedicated to candy dispensers ... Believe It or Not, a County Kerry man possesses an orange that is 25 years old ... Believe It or Not, a weather researcher had his ashes scattered on the eve of Hurricane Danielle 400 miles off the coast of Miama, Florida." Etc, etc, etc.

Incredibly, Ripley's column lives on, and there is even a collection of "Ripley Believe It or Not" museums in the United States.

The problem, of course, is that these are all extraordinary facts which will not offend anyone. There are no suicide bombers in Ripley, no Israeli air strikes ("Believe It or Not, 17,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon"), no major casualty tolls ("Believe It or Not, up to 650,000 Iraqis died in the four years following the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq"). See what I mean? Just a bit too close to the bone (or bones).

But I was reminded of dear old Ripley when I was prowling through the articles marking the anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Memoirs there have been aplenty, but I think only the French press - in the shape of Le Monde Diplomatique - was prepared to confront a bit of "Believe It or Not".

It recalled vividly - and shamefully - how the world's newspapers covered the story of Egypt's "aggression" against Israel. In reality - Believe It or Not - it was Israel which attacked Egypt after Nasser closed the straits of Tiran and ordered UN troops out of Sinai and Gaza following his vituperative threats to destroy Israel. "The Egyptians attack Israel," France-Soir told its readers on 5 June 1967, a whopper so big that it later amended its headline to "It's Middle East War!".

Quite so. Next day, the socialist Le Populaire headlined its story "Attacked on all sides, Israel resists victoriously". On the same day, Le Figaro carried an article announcing that "the victory of the army of David is one of the greatest of all time". Believe It or Not, the Second World War - which might be counted one of the greatest of all time, had ended only 22 years earlier.

Johnny Hallyday, France's undie-able pop star, sang for 50,000 French supporters of Israel - for whom solidarity was expressed in the French press by Serge Gainsbourg, Juliette Gréco, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterand. Believe It or Not - and you can believe it - Mitterand once received the coveted Francisque medal from Pétain's Vichy collaborationists.

Only the president of France, General de Gaulle, moved into political isolation by telling a press conference several months later that Israel "is organising, on the territories which it has taken, an occupation which cannot work without oppression, repression and expulsions - and if there appears resistance to this, it will in turn be called 'terrorism'". This accurate prophecy earned reproof from the Nouvel Observateur - to the effect that "Gaullist France has no friends; it has only interests". And Believe It or Not, with the exception of one small Christian paper, there was in the entire French press one missing word: Palestinians.

I owe it to the academic Anicet Mobé Fansiama to remind me this week that - Believe It or Not - Congolese troops from Belgium's immensely wealthy African colony scored enormous victories over Italian troops in Africa during the Second World War, capturing 15,000 prisoners, including nine generals. Called "the Public Force" - a name which happily excluded the fact that these heroes were black Congolese - the army mobilised 13,000 soldiers and civilians to fight Vichy French colonies in Africa and deployed in the Middle East - where they were positioned to defend Palestine - as well as in Somalia, Madagascar, India and Burma.

Vast numbers of British and American troops passed through the Congo as its wealth was transferred to the war chests of the United States and Britain.

A US base was built at Kinshasa to move oil to Allied troops fighting in the Middle East.

But - Believe It or Not - when Congolese trade unions, whose members were requisitioned to perform hard labour inside Belgium's colony by carrying agricultural and industrial goods and military equipment, often on their backs, demanded higher salaries, the Belgian authorities confronted their demonstrations with rifle fire, shooting down 50 of their men.

At least 3,000 political prisoners were deported for hard labour to a remote district of Congo. Thus were those who gave their blood for Allied victory repaid. Or rather not repaid. The four billion Belgian francs which was owed back to the Congo - about £500m in today's money - was never handed over. Believe It or Not.

So let's relax and return to Ripley reality. "Believe It or Not, Russell Parsons of Hurricane, West Virginia, has his funeral and cremation instructions tattooed on his arm! ... Believe It or Not, in April 2007 (yes, these are new Ripleys) a group of animal lovers paid nearly $3,400 to buy 300 lobsters from a Maine fish market - then set them free back into the ocean! ... Believe It or Not, in a hospital waiting room, 70 per cent of people suffer from broken bones, 75 per cent are fatigued, 80 per cent have fevers. What percentage of people must have all four ailments?" Believe It or Not, I don't know. And oh yes, "Geta, Emperor of Rome AD189-212, insisted upon alternative meals. A typical menu: partridge (perdix), peacock (pavo), leek (porrum), beans (phaseoli), peach (persica), plum (pruna) and melon (pepone)."

I guess after that, you just have to throw up.

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2643015.ece

The 5-Minute Interview: Norah Jones, Singer/actress

'I'm good at reading people and finding out their intentions'

Published: 11 June 2007

Norah Jones, 28, has sold 35 million records in five years. She has released a new album 'Not Too Late' this year and made her cinema debut with the leading role in Wong Kar Wai's road movie, 'My Blueberry Nights'. She is touring the US, with UK dates planned for August.

If I weren't talking to you right now, I'd be ...

Swimming in the ocean off Brazil, with my friends and boyfriend. We did shows in Brazil and I remember how beautiful the beaches were.

A phrase I use far too often is ...

"Oh my god!" Way too often, in an excited way, and in a "What have I done?" way.

The most surprising thing that happened to me is ...

Probably the success of my music. I didn't expect so many people to tune in. I hoped to play in clubs in New York and to make a living playing music, but I certainly didn't have expectations this high.

A common misperception of me is ...

That I'm tall, but actually I'm really short, 5ft 1in. It happens a lot after shows. The audience is always looking up at the stage, so everybody up there looks tall.

I'm not a politician, but ...

It would be great if everyone was honest. It would be great if all politicians weren't able to skirt around things, or tell lies.

I'm good at ...

Reading people. I get a good impression of what people's intentions are.

I'm very bad at ...

Hiding my own intentions, or faking something. It can be an endearing feature, but it can also be really annoying.

The ideal night out is ...

Ice skating. But it's summer, so maybe I'd go roller-skating instead.

In moments of weakness, I ...

Tend to think too much about it and make it harder on myself. Then I realise I'm doing that and I relax a little.

Rebecca Bole

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2084642,00.html

The heat is on

The British are famous for making small talk and big news out of the weather, says David Adam, but with global warming afoot, our obsession is justified

Monday May 21, 2007

The Guardian

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1732123.ece

From The Times

May 2, 2007

Sleazy business

Corruption, prostitution and Viagra: Germany’s industrial giants have been rocked by a series of sordid scandals

Last month Heinrich von Pierer, chairman of the supervisory board of the German electronics giant Siemens, stepped down amid the biggest corruption scandal in the company’s history. At 66, von Pierer, an internationally respected business figure and adviser to Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schröder, had put in 40 years at the company. But although profits were up, Siemens had been racked by bribery scandals and von Pierer fell on his sword, denying responsibility for anything that had gone on lower down the pecking order.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/comment/story/0,,1993361,00.html

The holy fool of music

Stravinsky's finest music, writes John Tavener, brings us to universal truths, and from illusion to reality. He explains the debt he owes to the great Russian composer

Friday January 19, 2007

The Guardian

Since the age of 12, when I heard the world premiere of the Canticum Sacrum, I have loved the music of Stravinsky. After hearing the Canticum I went to every concert conducted by him in London. I vividly remember that on one occasion I was introduced to Stravinsky by Rufina Ampenoft of Boosey & Hawkes, for she had previously given him a score of one of my first pieces, The Donne Sonnets. As I peered down at his tiny but muscular form, he inscribed the score with two mysterious words: "I know." I never found out what he meant by this, but intuitively I felt that it was in some way tongue-in-cheek, and therefore linked to the spiritual world of the holy fool, common to all traditions.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1748550,00.html

Out of sight

It has to be one of the toughest jobs in film: selling Arabic films in America. Dan Glaister reports on what the US doesn't want to see

Friday April 7, 2006

The Guardian

A funny thing happened to John Sinno on his way into the US last month. Sinno was born in the Lebanon but has run a film distribution company in the US for the past 13 years, specialising in Arab films. He was returning from a conference in Vancouver and, in the boot of his car, as he drove back to Seattle from Canada, he had a box of DVDs. Not unusual for a film distributor. Some were his company's films, some were films given to him by film-makers and other distributors he had met in Vancouver. The US immigration official didn't like what he saw, and pulled Sinno over.

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