| Manley recommends extending Afghan mission
Not the Alliance is like a tired old broken record that just keeps repeating the same nonsense from Canada writes:
Pay careful attention to this blog as you will now witness first hand how Liberals eat their own Manley .... er I mean .. young. Posted 22/01/08 at 9:16 AM EST | Link to Comment .
Part 8: BAE's secret money machine
In 1994 the OECD [profile] urged member countries to put a stop to overseas bribery.
A binding convention was adopted in 1997. It was signed by Britain and came into force in 1999. Signatories promised to outlaw such corruption.
Inside Whitehall the reaction was as hypocritical as usual.
Many state industries had already been privatised in the Thatcher era, including BAE [BAE's position]. So officials no longer needed to employ agents directly.
But the MoD was still lobbying abroad on BAE's [profile] behalf and running huge government-to-government contracts, particularly the Saudi al-Yamamah deal [profile].
Instead of fulfilling their international promises, officials merely tried to put more distance between themselves and the companies doing the bribery.
European GP - Sunday - Team Quotes
Fernando Alonso (1st): "This was a really exciting race for both the drivers and all the fans. The conditions were unbelievable - mainly at the start when we were just aquaplaning everywhere. In the dry conditions the Ferraris were a little faster but in the final stages when the rain started again, we were quicker and I was able to overtake Felipe to take the lead. During this battle we touched twice, but that is motor racing, and we were fighting for victory. There was a close one in the pitlane during my last stop where there was a lot of traffic, and I was side-by-side with Giancarlo. All in all a good weekend for me, and I gained valuable World Championship points for both me and the team. In difficult conditions the team did a great job." Lewis Hamilton (9th): "This was an extraordinary weekend and a new experience for me.
Wilbaer joins zoo's celebrity line-up
After Knut and Flocke, welcome Wilbaer. Stuttgart's Wilhelma Zoo announced on Thursday that one of its polar bears gave birth to a male cub on December 10 - Germany's latest high-profile bear arrival, following Berlin Zoo star Knut and Nuremberg celebrity Flocke. But little Wilbaer has an advantage over his famous counterparts: his mother, Corinna, hasn't abandoned him. "Corinna is taking exemplary care of her offspring," zoo director Dieter Jauch said. Jauch pointed to the media frenzy that surrounded Knut last year as the reason the zoo so far kept Wilbaer's birth under wraps. "We are not out for the big money," he said. However, he added that the zoo has had his name - a combination of the zoo's name and the German for bear, "Baer" - registered as a trademark.
Authorities release a dozen Iraqis in a move the could lead to the ...
About 77 percent of the roughly 50,000 Iraqis in Lebanon have entered the country illegally, the Danish Refugee Council estimated in a survey released in December. In October 2007, up to 584 Iraqis were in detention in Lebanon because of their irregular status. Many of them had served their sentences but were still being arbitrarily detained. "Today we were happy to see the release the first group of Iraqis detained at the Retention Center for Foreign Persons in Beirut," said Najla Chahda, director of the Migrant Center. "This is a major and unprecedented step forward, and will partly alleviate the plight of these refugees living in dreadful conditions in Lebanon." Hazem al-Tamimi paid US$150 (€99) to smugglers in Syria who made him walk for several hours in the mountainous border area before getting him to a car that drove him to Beirut.
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