Press agency ANSA reports:
Fresh storm over Berlusconi's villa.
I'm reading and see...
Quote:The residence is a favourite refuge for Berlusconi, who has entertained British Premier Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin there with evenings of song and tours of the cactus collection.
<stares>
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Radio Prague reports ... on
The tragic story of the disappearing giraffes.
Quote:Thirty-one years ago last weekend, in the small Czech town of Dvur Kralove, a whole herd of giraffes was shot. Nobody was ever told why. This sounds like the opening of a Kafka novel, but it is a real event, and one that came to fascinate the British journalist JM Ledgard so much that he wrote a novel on the subject.
<raises eyebrow, reads on>
Quote:"The Czechoslovakian state, all the way up to the level of the Politburo, made it a state secret. So these giraffes were literally deemed not to exist any more. They were all of them shot, twenty-three of them were pregnant at the time, and they were literally liquidated."
Typical.
But - there was equally typical (typical Czech, that is) civic courage, as well:
Quote:"[..] the interesting thing today is that still the Czech state has not come clean on the incident. My hope is - on the anniversary - that the Czech government will finally tell the zoo in Dvur Kralove, why the giraffes were killed, because, incredibly, every year since 1975, the zoo director had asked the Czech government, 'Why did you kill the larges herd of giraffes ever assembled anywhere in the world and yet I have yet to receive a single document in writing?'"
Every year! For fourteen years under the Communist regime alone, which did not look particularly kindly on such proactive citizenship...
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Politicians have to exercise their best skills at kind platitudes when their officials leave, especially if it's at their own prodding...
Unfortunately, Bush has always been conspicuously hapless at feigning appreciation at such occasions. Notes the LA Times on
Goss's resignation:
Quote:In brief remarks at the White House, Bush announced Goss' resignation and thanked him for instilling "a sense of professionalism" within the CIA's ranks.
"A
sense of professionalism", at least. Well, that's something, anyway ... for the CIA. I suppose. In Bush's eyes.
("
Instilling a sense of professionalism"?
. The CIA didnt even have a
sense of professionalism, pre-Goss?)
Quote:"I've established a very close, personal relationship with Porter, which is very important for the director of the CIA," Bush said. "He's spent a lot of time here in the Oval Office. He's given me his candid advice. I appreciate his integrity."
Or: "He came in here all the effing time. Telling me about how he disagreed with me. I didnt listen to him."
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The BBC
reports that an "elite force" has been set up in the UK "to strengthen counter-terrorism and support special forces".
The newly established elite force has an insignia too.
This is what it looks like:
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EDIT - wait, I gotta add this one as well.
This brilliant piece of
election analysis in The Guardian:
Quote:"If it weren't for the fact that two years ago the Labour party had done equally badly, we would be talking about an unprecedented disaster," the elections expert John Curtice told Sky News.
Yeeeess.... quite.
Also, in other commentary, if Barcelona hadnt beat it in the semi-finals, Milan would be among the Champions League top 2!
