Extra labels for 2008: BANDINELLI, BERNARDINI, BONINO, BORDIN, BUSDACHIN, CALLEGARI, CORLEO, COSCIONI, CROCICCHIO, FIUME, PAGANO, PANNELLA, PATELLI, PIETROSANTI, STRIK-LIEVERS, TOSONI, VERONESI, WELBY, ZAMPARUTTI
Cross-party fury over MP's arrest -

The Lib Dems have called shadow immigration minister Damian Green's arrest a "mayday warning" for democracy amid cross-party anger over the move.

Mr Green was arrested by anti-terror officers, held for nine hours and had his two homes and offices searched as part of a Home Office leak inquiry.

Tory leader David Cameron called the police operation "alarming" and said the government had questions to answer.

But the Home Office said ministers were not informed until after the arrest.

'Democracy in danger'

Mr Cameron, London mayor Boris Johnson and Commons Speaker Michael Martin were all informed about the raids.

But Downing Street insisted ministers had not been given advance warning and Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was purely a police matter.

"I had no prior knowledge, the home secretary had no prior knowledge, I know of no other minister who had any prior knowledge," he told Sky News, adding: "I knew about it only after it had happened."

Mr Green was not charged with any offence but was released on bail until February, when he could face further questioning.

The Ashford MP, the Tories' immigration spokesman since 2005, has denied any wrongdoing and said "opposition politicians have a duty to hold the government to account".

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg told the BBC that he was "really shocked" by Mr Green's arrest.

"This is something you might expect from a tin-pot dictatorship, not in a modern democracy," he said.

Given the culture of "extraordinary secrecy" in Whitehall, it was getting harder to hold the government to account and opposition MPs had a constitutional duty to keep "ministers on their toes", he added.

He called on Gordon Brown to "rule out any further use of anti-terrorism powers in cases that have nothing to do with terrorism," although the Metropolitan Police stressed the arrest was made under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and not anti-terror legislation.

Some counter-terrorism officers were involved because they were the most "appropriate" to carry out such an operation, the Met said, but David Cameron attacked the "heavy-handed" way in which it took nine officers to make the arrest and search the premises.

"If they wanted to talk to Damian Green why not pick up the telephone and ask to talk to him," he said. "I think this is extraordinary that it was so heavy-handed and done in this way," said Mr Cameron.

"They have got questions to answer, frankly, I think government ministers have got questions to answer as well. If they didn't know, why weren't they told?

"What do they think about in Britain today, counter-terrorism police are spending their time searching an MP's office, arresting him, holding him for nine hours, all on a day when British citizens are being killed on the other side of the world and all because, as far as I can see, he made public some information that was in the public interest that the government found uncomfortable.

"Well, let's hope that our democracy hasn't come to that."

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve released a list of more than 50 questions he said the government had to answer about the arrest, including when ministers and officials were told about it.

"The government's limp and confused response begs more questions than it answers. Ministers have some very important questions to answer."

Leaks

Sir David Normington, the top civil servant at the Home Office, said he had taken the decision to ask for police help in identifying the source of a series of "leaks of sensitive information over an extended period," because the leaks had "risked undermining the effective operation of my department".

"The police investigation led to a junior member of the Home Office being arrested on 19 November and subsequently suspended from duty," said Sir David in a statement.

"Yesterday (Thursday), I was informed by the Metropolitan Police at about 1.45pm that a search was about to be conducted of the home and offices of a member of the Opposition front bench. I was subsequently told that an arrest had been made.

"Ministers were not involved in the decision to seek police assistance or in the subsequent investigation and were only told of the arrest after it had occurred."

The leaks thought to be at the centre of the investigation include:

The November 2007 revelation that the home secretary knew the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it.
The February 2008 news that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons.
A whips' list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days.
A letter from the home secretary warning that a recession could lead to a rise in crime.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed Mr Green was arrested by members of its counter-terrorism command, thought to be Special Branch officers, at his home in Kent and searches were conducted at his homes in London and Kent and at two offices in Kent and London.

It said the investigation was not terrorism related but did fall within the counter-terror unit's remit and that it was made without the knowledge or approval of ministers.

'Fair game'

There was also concern about the arrest on the Labour benches.

Former minister Denis MacShane said that the Speaker should make clear that MPs were entitled to hold sensitive material in the same way as lawyers and doctors.

"To send a squad of counter terrorist officers to arrest an MP shows the growing police contempt for Parliament and democratic politics," he said.

"The police now believe that MPs are so reduced in public status that they are fair game for over-excited officers to order dawn raids, arrests and searches of confidential files held by MPs or those who work for them.

"I am not sure this is good for British democracy."

Police say Mr Green was held on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office" and "aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office" - an obscure and little-used offence under common law.

One legal expert said it was doubtful whether any case would be brought against Mr Green.

"In a western democracy, I think it would be very surprising if an elected member of Parliament was put on trial for an offence which arises from him putting in the public domain material that he thinks should be there in the public interest," said Robert Brown, a partner at the law firm Corker Binning.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/7753763.stm

I passanti colpiscono un ladro d'auto con un tacchino congelato

La polizia di Fuquay-Varina ha arrestato un uomo che i passanti hanno colpito con un TACCHINO CONGELATO mentre rubava l'auto di una donna fuori da una drogheria. L'uomo ha preso del denaro da un registratore di cassa in una stazione di servizio BP sulla superstrada 401 attorno alle 11.30 del mattino, dopodiché ha attraversato verso un parcheggio e si è avvicinato a Irene Moorman Bailey, che stava caricando la spesa nell'automobile.

I testimoni hanno detto alla polizia che l'uomo ha cominciato a colpire la signora Bailey sulla fronte, nel tentativo di ottenere le chiavi della macchina. “La signora era per terra e il tipo la colpiva fisicamente„ ha detto il cliente Randy Owens. I passanti sono intervenuti e colpito l'uomo in testa con un tacchino congelato che la signora Bailey aveva appena comprato.

Tuttavia l'uomo è riuscito ad entrare nella Nissan Maxima della signora Bailey e ha urtato altre cinque automobili nello scappare dal parcheggio. Gli agenti hanno arrestato Fred Ervin, 30 anni, nell'auto della signora Bailey, e l'hanno portato in ospedale con una grave ferita alla testa, comunque adesso sta abbastanza bene.

Gatta nel motore per una settimana

Un automobilista austriaco non capiva come mai la sua Mercedes "ronzasse" più del solito, finché ha aperto il cofano. Peter Hochberger vi ha trovato Luna, la terrificata gattina dei vicini di casa, che era incastrata nel motore da quasi una settimana, senza acqua né cibo. La fortunata Luna è sopravvissuta oltre 300 miglia di viaggi prima che il suo miagolio desse l'allarme, ma si era nascosta così profondamente che il motore ha dovuto essere smontato per liberarla
.



Il meccanico Walter Doerfler ha detto: "Non ho idea di come si possa essere cacciata lì, è stato un lavoraccio smontare il motore per poterla raggiungere". Luna se l'è cavata con giusto una spellicciata ed è adesso sicura a casa con la sua famiglia a Ruprechtshofen, Austria, con le sue altre otto vite rimanenti... :)

Coppia pagana trasloca un cerchio di pietre preistoriche

Quando John e Suzy Burton hanno deciso di traslocare in una casa più piccola, hanno detto all'uomo dei traslochi che volevano portare con loro alcune pietre preziose. Per la precisione, 13 enormi massi dal loro giardino. Il signor Burton è un druido e sua moglie una strega



Così quando la coppia pagana ha lasciato Abbotts Court a Weymouth, nel Dorset, una dozzina di uomini con una gru e dei camion ha portato i massi nella loro nuova casa a Dorchester, distante dieci miglia. I vicini di casa hanno osservato meravigliati mentre le pietre - ognuna delle quali pesa oltre mezza tonnellata, venivano posizionate nel giardino cosicché la coppia possa circondarsi di energia positiva

Batman sarà ucciso dopo 70 anni

Batman sta per tirare le cuoia dopo 70 anni, rivela il suo disegnatore Grant Morrison.

Circolano voci che Batman soffrirà una fine orribile perché il suo compagno Robin passerà dalla parte avversa e lo tradirà miserabilmente. Altri speculano che Batman potrebbe pensionarsi oppure essere ucciso da un delinquente detto "Il guanto bianco"



Il suo futuro sarà rivelato nell'edizione odierna di Batman, il cui attuale autore scozzese Mr Morrison ha promesso di rivelare la fine

Donna di 106 anni sbaglia il compleanno

Una delle persone più anziane viventi in Gran bretagna, dell'età di 106 anni, ha sbagliato il suo compleanno per oltre un secolo. Lena Thouless, una bisnonna di Bowthorpe, Norwich, ha trascorso la sua vita celebrando il suo compleanno il 23 novembre. Ma un'indagine all'anagrafe di sua nipote Lena Brooks ha rivelato che avrebbe dovuto celebrare il giorno prima!



La signora Brooks, 55-enne pure anch'essa di Bowthorpe, è rimasta sbalordita dallo scoprire per caso come la centenaria fosse effettivamente nata un giorno prima, il 22 novembre. E' risalita al certificato di nascita, ma continueranno a celebrarlo il 23 come lei vuole.

E ADESSO UNA DOMANDA PER TUTTI VOI, UN GRANDE MISTERO: MARCO PANNELLA E' NATO IL 2 OPPURE IL 3 MAGGIO 1930 ??? vi avverto che questa è difficile

Uomo incarcerato per cantare "Spiderpig" alla polizia

non c'è limite al peggio: un povero cristo è stato messo in galera solo per avere osato cantare la canzoncina "Spiderpig" (dal film dei "Simpson") agli agenti di polizia.

David Mullen, 22 anni, è stato condannato a tre mesi per avere cantato il motivetto di Homer Simpson, più altri otto mesi per resistenza alle autorità mentre lo arrestavano per tale GRAVE REATO.

commento di MW: Ma se non avete niente di meglio da fare, andate a fare le guerre in Iraq, oppure andate A FARE IN CULO
Storie a sorpresa di noi senzatetto...

L'urina di un uomo rubata in Surprise street

Un uomo di 26 anni in carrozzella è stato accoltellato a Surprise domenica mattina. La vittima, James Del Rio di Phoenix, è stato curato al centro medico Banner Del E. Webb a Sun City West per quattro coltellate, dice il sergente della polizia di Surprise, Mark Ortega.

Del Rio ha detto alla polizia che stava andando nella sua carrozzella verso nord in direzione del Parkview Place, vicino al boulevard Mountain View, verso mezzanotte, quando una vettura 4-porte diretta all'opposto gli si è fermata accanto.

Ortega dice che un uomo è uscito da una porta posteriore e l'ha pugnalato quattro volte nel braccio destro e poi gli ha tolto lo zainetto, dove c'era anche un pitale.
Mystery piano in woods perplexes police -

Was it a theft? A prank? A roundabout effort to bring some holiday cheer to the police? Authorities in Harwich, Massachusetts, are probing the mysterious appearance of a piano, in good working condition, in the middle of the woods.

Discovered by a woman who was walking a trail, the Baldwin Acrosonic piano, model number 987, is intact - and, apparently, in tune.

Sgt. Adam Hutton of the Harwich Police Department said information has been broadcast to all the other police departments in the Cape Cod area in hopes of drumming up a clue, however minor it may be. But so far, the investigation is flat.

Also of note: Near the mystery piano - serial number 733746 - was a bench, positioned as though someone was about to play.

The piano was at the end of a dirt road, near a walking path to a footbridge in the middle of conservation land near the Cape.

It took a handful of police to move the piano into a vehicle to transport it to storage, so it would appear that putting it into the woods took more than one person.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE -

The eco machine that can magic water out of thin air

Water, Water, everywhere; nor any drop to drink. The plight of the Ancient Mariner is about to be alleviated thanks to a firm of eco-inventors from Canada who claim to have found the solution to the world's worsening water shortages by drawing the liquid of life from an unlimited and untapped source - the air.

The company, Element Four, has developed a machine that it hopes will become the first mainstream household appliance to have been invented since the microwave. Their creation, the WaterMill, uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water.

The machine went on display this weekend in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, hosted by Wired magazine at its annual showcase of the latest gizmos its editors believe could change the world. From the outside, the mill looks like a giant golf ball that has been chopped in half: it is about 3ft in diameter, made of white plastic, and is attached to the wall.



It works by drawing air through filters to remove dust and particles, then cooling it to just below the temperature at which dew forms. The condensed water is passed through a self-sterilising chamber that uses microbe-busting UV light to eradicate any possibility of Legionnaires' disease or other infections. Finally, it is filtered and passed through a pipe to the owner's fridge or kitchen tap.

The obvious question to the proposition that household water demands can be met by drawing it from the air is: are you crazy? To which the machine's inventor and Element Four's founder, Jonathan Ritchey, replies: 'Just wait and see. The demand for water is off the chart. People are looking for freedom from water distribution systems that are shaky and increasingly unreliable.'

For the environmentally conscious consumer, the WaterMill has an obvious appeal. Bottled water is an ecological catastrophe. In the US alone, about 30bn litres of bottled water is consumed every year at a cost of about $11bn (£7.4bn).
Telecamera nella camera da letto: abbiamo non meno di 4 milioni di telecamere che ci spiano in Gran bretagna, ma con questo abbiamo superato ogni limite di umana decenza:

I SERVIZI SOCIALI INSTALLANO UNA TELECAMERA A CIRCUITO CHIUSO NELLA CAMERA DA LETTO DI UNA COPPIA CON DIFFICOLTA' DI APPRENDIMENTO PER MONITORARE IL LORO COMPORTAMENTO.

Il personale distrettuale ha spiato i giovani genitori durante la notte in un piano per vedere se fossero adatti a curare il loro babino. Mamma e papa' sono stati costretti ad appellarsi alla Legge sui diritti umani (Human Rights Act), che protegge il diritto alla vita privata, prima che i servizi sociali accettassero di spegnere la telecamera che li riprendeva a letto insieme.

Grazie al consiglio di un vicino, la coppia ha potuto invocare i suoi diritti e il distretto ha dovuto spegnere la telecamera.

E aggiunge la sottoscritta Miss Welby, senzatetto che ha pagato le tasse per 9 anni in questo paese e che dorme in freddo glaciale in un parcheggio: a me non avete dedicato un minuto per aiutarmi, ma a quei due poveri cristi avete dedicato un'intera squadra di installazione e controllo della telecamera. allora mi chiedo la domanda retorica: siete davvero i servizi sociali o siete i FABBRICANTI DI TELECAMERE ???

Una "STRANA" famiglia britannica dice che il loro divano è stregato


Non meravigliatevi se le cose zompano nella notte: un "strana" famiglia britannica pensa di avere un fantasma nel divano. "Strana" perché si chiamano proprio Strange di cognome. Christine Strange, di Bristol, dice che il suo divano ha cominciato a emettere strani suoni che sono diventati sempre più forti



Potete sentire qui il divano inquietante

Uomo che celebra Natale ogni giorno si conterrà a causa della stretta creditizia

Andy Park, noto come Mister Natale perché lo celebra ogni giorno, nella sua vita s'è bevuto oltre 5mila bottiglie di champagne Moet e si è auto-spedito oltre 230mila cartoline di auguri. Ma quest'anno il 44-enne elettricista divorziato di Melksham, nel Wiltshire, deve fare dei tagli alle spese per mantenere la sua devozione alla festività: "Ho consumato 23 videoregistratori guardando ogni giorno il discorso della regina. Mi sono anche spedito 235.206 cartoline natalizie ma oggigiorno la posta è così cara che me le devo recapitare da me".

"La stretta creditizia mi ha colpito di brutto e potrei perfino essere costretto a limitare lo champagne. Il pranzo completo mi costa oltre 150 sterline alla settimana, ma lotto duramente affinché la crisi finanziaria non rovini le mie celebrazioni".
'


"Non sono tirchio ma dovrò rinunciare a qualcosina: avrò un solo albero di Natale quest'anno, invece di due, e taglio le spese anche sulle luminarie per via della bolletta elettrica. Ero abituato a un tacchino di 14 libbre ma ora mi devo accontentare di uno di nove libbre [una libbra è circa mezzo kg, ndMW]. Mi rifiuto di fare compromessi sullo champagne e andrò sempre a Moet, ma lo dovrò far durare due giorni invece di uno".

Ogni mattina dal 14 luglio [data significativa non solo per la Francia ma anche per una tipa che conosco, ndMW] del 1994, Andy Park ha fatto colazione con sherry e tortine di carne macinata, dopodiché si sbafa un tacchino arrosto guardando il discorso della regina: il suo preferito è quello del 'annus horribilis'.

Quando ha fatto la sua più recente somma nell'ottobre scorso, Mr Park ha calcolato di avere consumato 5110 tacchini, 94080 tortine di carne macinata e 28224 patate arrosto.

Ancora notizie pappagallesche, e questa è notevole:

PAPPAGALLO FA SESSO COL CAPPELLO DI PIUME DI UNA SIGNORA

Una signora orrificata non poteva credere ai suoi occhi quando si è svegliata scoprendo il suo pappagallo avere un rapporto sessuale col suo costosissimo cappello di piume. Il pappagallo Shrek si è abbandonato alla lussuria dopo avere ingerito nove pillole dietetiche che hanno l'effetto collaterale di promuovere l'appetito sessuale.



La signora 40-enne qui raffigurata, di Witham qui nell'Essex, si è detta disgustata: "è diventato un maniaco".


Cane da caccia spara ai cacciatori

La polizia di Tillamook [Oregon, ndMW] dice che un uomo ferito sabato mattina mentre cacciava le anatre potrebbe essere stato colpito dal suo stesso cane da caccia, un Labrador maschio di tre anni.

Il sergente Todd Hoodenpyl ha detto che il 23-enne Matthew Markum e suo fratello stavano cacciando anatre nella baia di Tillamook alle 7:30 circa quando è successo l'incidente. La faccenda sembra andata così: i due coglioni cacciavano in barca, ma a un certo punto hanno lasciato la piccola barca con dentro il cane e un fucile. Il cane ha accidentalmente (accidentalmente???) azionato il fucile con un proiettile che ha forato la barca e raggiunto la gamba sinistra di uno degli idioti, Matthew Markum, il cui fratello altro idiota lo ha fatto soccorrere da un'ambulanza che lo ha trasportato all'ospedale Emanuel per ulteriori cure.

Purtroppo è sopravvissuto.

Astronauta donna perde la borsetta

L'HO TROVATA IO !!!

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper stava lavorando al pannello solare nella Stazione spaziale internazionale quando la sua borsetta è esplosa lasciando relitti nello spazio: un péttine, un rossetto, roba del genere


Uomo multato per esibirsi e masturbarsi su un aeroplano

[a quanto pare gli australiani hanno quest'abitudine compulsiva!, vedi post precedente]

Un uomo australiano è stato multato per esibirsi facendosi una sega davanti a una donna su un volo per Darwin. Lucas Steven Knudson ha contestato che stava solo 'aggiustandosi i pantaloni che erano troppo stretti', nell'udienza al tribunale di Darwin ieri, dove il 32-enne Darwin era appena atterrato sul volo Virgin Blue DJ449 da Brisbane ed è stato arrestato per essersi masturbato per 4 minuti.

Il tribunale ha ascoltato l'uomo di Ballina - che indossava jeans e una maglietta di flanella con calzini bianchi, ma i due sbirri che gli parlarono dopo il volo di mezzanotte dicono che i suoi pantaloni non erano "completamente chiusi"



Dopo un'udienza di due ore, il magistrato Tanya Fong Lim ha riscontrato Knudson colpevole di avere commesso un atto di indecenza sull'aeroplano in base alla legge sui reati dell'aviazione nel Commonwealth.

Ms Fong Lim ha detto che è assolutamente inaccettabile masturbarsi in pubblico - particolarmente in un aeroplano - e ha multato Knudson di 2.500 dollari.


Statua senzatetto viaggia in prima classe

[come senzatetto io stessa, questa notizia mi piace molto!]

Una statua a misura naturale di una persona senzatetto ha viaggiato in grande stile su un volo per 400 paundi per Heathrow. Il bronzo di 6 piedi (oltre 180 cm, ndMW) ha viaggiato da Copenhagen via Heathrow a Cardiff dove apparirà nel contesto di una campagna per sensibilizzare la miseria di coloro che vivono per le strade d'Europa. I capi dell'aviolinea hanno concesso che possa viaggiare con l'artista danese Jens Galschiot sul volo di 90 minuti verso la Gran bretagna per la mostra, ma poi lo staff dell'aviolinea ha decretato che la statua era troppo grossa per la classe economica del volo....



E così hanno deciso di spostare sia Glaschiot che la statua in prima classe con un trattamento VIP, nel volo di 600 miglia della SAS, Scandinavian Airlines. L'artista 58-enne ha detto di "essere entrambi grati per lo spazio extra. è stato un viaggio molto buono, tutti in prima classe parlavano di esso, e perfino il capitano ha parlato brevemente per spiegare la presenza di questo inusuale passeggero".

Il segreto della perfetta chiamata telefonica

Alcuni ricercatori hanno scoperto come effettuare la perfetta chiamata telefonica, che dura 9 minuti e 36 secondi e consiste nelle notizie di famiglia, l'attualità, i problemi personali e il tempo meteorologico. Gli esperti hanno stabilito la formula vincente della conversazione dopo avere analizzato oltre duemila persone su cosa amano o odiano parlare al telefono. Hanno stabilito che durante la chiamata perfetta 3 minuti vanno spesi per aggiornarsi sulle notizie circa la famiglia e gli amici, un altro minuto sui problemi personali, un altro ancora circa la scuola o il lavoro, 42 secondi sull'attualità e 24 secondi circa il tempo atmosferico. Chiaccherare sul sesso opposto dura 24 secondi di... eiaculazione precoce (no comment... ndMW), 12 secondi sui pettegolezzi circa le celebrità (no comment bis... ndMW), 1 minuto e 42 secondi a ridere (che cazzo c'avranno da ridere, beati loro idioti, ndMW), 12 secondi di silenzio (grazie a Dio, ndMW) e UN minuto sull'attualità degli affari generali del mondo.



Hitler davvero aveva una sola palla

Effettivamente Hitler davvero aveva un solo testicolo, secondo un medico dell'esercito tedesco che salvò la vita del futuro Führer durante al prima guerra mondiale. I leader nazista perse un testicolo nella battaglia della Somme nel 1916. Questa condizione medica, della quale non c'è mai stata prova definitiva, fu derisa durante la seconda guerra mondiale con un detto popolare che comincia con "Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall." [la traduzione perderebbe la rima, ndMW].

La scoperta è documentata in una conversazione degli anni '60 tra il medico di guerra tedesco Johan Jambor e il suo prete Franciszek Pawlar. Il documento del prete è emerso 23 anni dopo la morte di Jambor. Nonostante fosse noto che Hitler soffrì una ferita pelvica nella Somme, gli storici non hanno mai potuto provare che ciò costituisse monorchismo.

Blassius Hanczuch, un amico di Jambor, ha detto che il medico si è più tardi pentito per avere salvato la vita di Hitler. Dice: "Nel 1916 ebbero la loro battaglia più dura nella Somme. Per molte ore, Johan e i suoi amici raccolsero i soldati feriti. Si ricorda di Hitler, lo chiamavano l'urlatore. Era estremamente rumoroso, e urlava "Aiuto, aiuto!".

"La sua pancia e gambe erano totalmente sanguinanti, perse un testicolo e la sua prima domanda ai medici fu 'potrò avere bambini?'"

commento di MW: ideologicamente ne ha avuti fin troppi. e PS: pare che anche Napoleone avesse una sola palla. è un vizio!


Japanese man blames murders on death of pet dog

An Japanese man accused of killing two people and seriously injuring a third has allegedly blamed his actions on the fact that his pet dog was put down when he was 12. Takeshi Koizumi, 46, is accused of killing bureaucrat Takehiko Yamaguchi and his wife Michiko last week and stabbing 72-year-old Yasuko Yoshihara.

He was arrested on suspicion of violating the sword and firearms control law while police prepare a murder case against him. Mr. Yamaguchi was a retired vice minister in the health ministry in Japan, while Mrs. Yoshihara's husband, Kenji, had held the same position.

After the attacks security was tightened in the Kasumigaseki district of ministry building in Tokyo as police searched for an individual who seemed to have a grudge against the government's policies on pensions, in which both men had been involved.

But e-mail messages sent to media on Saturday evening, shortly before Koizumi handed himself in to police, may reveal his true motivations. "The uprising this time is not a pension terror attack," a message sent to Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. stated.

This is revenge for the killing by a healthcare center of a member of my family 34 years ago," the message stated. "Even now, they continue to kill as many as 500,000 innocent pets every year. They need to know that if they continue with this needless butchery then it will come back to them."

In an interview with the Yomiuri newspaper, the suspect's father confirmed that the family had adopted a stray dog when Koizumi was in elementary school but eventually had it put down because it barked constantly. He said he received a phone call from his son the night he surrendered to police, the first time he had spoken with him for a decade. "I want to tell my son to punish himself and not to be so lacking in shame as to stay alive," he said. "I don't know what to say to the family. I really should kill myself."

from http://arbroath.blogspot.com/


Uomo multato per il suo pene nel vaso del sugo per la pasta

[VI PROPONGO QUESTA COME LA STORIA DEL CAZZO VINCITRICE DELL'ANNO]

Un uomo australiano è stato catturato vicino alla spiaggia di Nobbys con il suo pene in un vasetto di sugo per la pasta, si è appreso ieri in un'udienza della pretura di Newcastle. La polizia ha estratto le pistole quando ha sospettato che Keith Roy Weatherley, 46 anni, fosse armato. Invece lo hanno trovato parzialmente (s)vestito con i suoi organi genitali in un vasetto di sugo per la pasta, secondo il rapporto della polizia.

Weatherley, di... [indirizzo del pover'uomo omesso, ndMW] ha attirato l'attenzione della polizia parcheggiando in divieto di sosta poco prima di mezzogiorno il 26 di ottobre. I poliziotti hanno pensato che Weatherley stesse facendo qualcosa con le sue mani tra le gambe, e hanno sospettato che potesse armeggiare, appunto, un'arma. Weatherley è partito via vedendo gli sbirri, nonostante questi gli lampeggiassero.

L'inseguimento è durato non più di 5-10 minuti, a una velocità non superiore ai 20 km/h, prima che Weatherley fosse fermato a Centenary Drive, Newcastle. Ha rifiutato di lasciare l'automobile. Quattro ufficiali hanno usato i manganelli e lo spray di capsico per rimuoverlo.

Hanno trovato un vaso da 750 millilitri intorno al suo pene ed hanno notato che Weatherley ha tentato di continuare a masturbarsi mentre lottavano con lui. Una perquisizione della sua automobile ha rilevato materiale pornografico, un "sussidio" erotico fai-da-te e calze femminili.

In tribunale Weatherley si è dichiarato colpevole di comportamento indecente, resistenza e disobbedienza alla polizia. Il magistrato Elaine Truscott ha chiesto a Weatherley, che si è rappresentato da solo senza avvocato, perché si è comportato in questa maniera. Ha risposto di avere resistito alla polizia nel tentativo di ricomporsi.

È stato multato di 600 dollari per comportamento indecente e condannato degli altri due reati senza ulteriori provvedimenti.
Britain is in no position to laugh at Iceland’s problems

From The Times - November 22, 2008 - Patrick Hosking

Is Britain simply a bigger version of Iceland? Certainly the City of London is starting to look a bit too much like Reykjavik, but with taller buildings and fewer cod. It is an exaggeration, but not that much of an exaggeration, to liken the UK to the broken, bankrupt North Atlantic island.

Like Iceland, we boast a huge banking industry out of all proportion to the overall economy. Like Iceland, we have an unfunded depositor lifeboat scheme totally unequipped to grapple with failing banks. Like Iceland, our national output is dwarfed by the vast liabilities of our banks. Like Iceland, our banks for years scoffed at relying on domestic depositors to fund their activities and developed a dangerous addiction to wholesale money. Like Iceland, our Government is poised to go on a borrowing spree to try to soften the pain. Like Iceland, our currency is on the skids as foreign investors pull out.

Our problems are not nearly so extreme, of course, but we’d be foolish to feel terribly smug as the International Monetary Fund and Scandinavian neighbours go in to bathe Iceland’s wounds.

The scale of our problems has still not been understood. In essence the domestic banks are largely bust. The Government’s £500 billion bailout plan is primarily designed not to keep banks lending to small firms and to homebuyers but to prevent an unimaginable financial calamity.

Banks provide the very foundations and plumbing of the entire economy. A failure of confidence in them could still bring the entire capitalist edifice tumbling down.

It suits ministers, however, to maintain the bogus claim that the bailout is about sustaining bank lending. True, that would be a helpful side-effect, but is not the main purpose. Indeed, a gentle and gradual reduction in the indebtedness of individuals and companies is still needed.

At the risk of hyperbole, we should not be worrying about whether this is going to be a thin Christmas for retailers (it is), but whether Britain and the West are about to plunge into a years-long economic Dark Age – complete with mass unemployment and social unrest.

Taxpayers are already facing a loss of almost £10 billion on their investment in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS even before the Government hands over a penny. That is what their languishing share prices are saying.

The recession has barely begun and the banks are on their knees. Scores of billions of pounds of bad debts are yet to come, as companies and individuals default on loans.

When in early October officials mapped out the bailout with banks, they insisted that those banks stress-tested their balance sheets for a serious downturn. In the six weeks since then, the outlook has darkened swiftly. The worst-case scenario imaginable then may well be looking like a central-case scenario now.

Richard Pym, executive chairman of Bradford & Bingley, the nationalised bank, told MPs this week that the bank had already stress-tested its mortgage book to see how it would cope with a 25 per cent drop in house prices (answer: £600-800 million of losses). But he no longer regarded this as sufficient and was busy putting much larger house price falls into his equations.

The fattened-up capital cushions of the banks will be enough for a while, but banks remain colossolly levered. It wouldn’t take much of a deterioration in their assets to wipe out all the fresh capital raised. The banks may well have to come back to taxpayers for more. They will be given it, too, albeit at the price of total nationalisation.

One third of Icelanders now want to emigrate, things have got so bad, a recent survey found. The proportion of Britons with similar wanderlust may not be so different before this economic agony passes.
Congress voted bailout under threat of martial law

source: http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/11/22/inhofe-paulson-threatened-martial-law.html

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok.) said yesterday that it was Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who personally told Congressmen that there would be martial law in America if they did not pass the bailout of the banks as demanded by the Bush Administration. On Oct. 2, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said on the House floor that "Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."

Now, Senator Inhofe, speaking on KFAQ radio station in Tulsa, has confirmed who it was that issued this threat. The interview host Pat Campbell asked Infhofe, "Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn't do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest. Who was feeding you guys this stuff?"

Inhofe replied, "That's Henry Paulson. We had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think--a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been ... the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call and I guess there's no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said, he painted this picture you just described. He said, This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced."

Inhofe has demanded that the remaining funds not already given away be taken back by the government, and suggested that Paulson was giving the money to his friends.

But simply taking money back is not a solution. There is only one competent solution to this mess and that is a bankruptcy re-organization as Lyndon LaRouche has defined.

Tre quarti dei britannici sono incapaci di nominare le tre nazioni costituenti della Gran bretagna

La maggior parte dei britannici non sa di quante nazioni è fatto il loro paese, né quale sia la lingua più parlata nel mondo: più della metà crede erroneamente che l'inglese sia la lingua più comune, mentre solo poco più di un terzo la identifica correttamente nel cinese mandarino, secondo un recente sondaggio.




Ma ciò che è peggio, meno di un terzo identifica correttamente Inghilterra, Galles e Scozia come le tre nazioni costituenti la Gran bretagna. La dottoressa Rita Gardner, direttrice della Royal Geographical Society, ha dichiarato: "Il sondaggio solleva la questione di quanto la gente sia coinvolta con le nozioni di geografia in un mondo globalizzato".

Telefonata in radio rivela abitudini cannibali


Un DJ della radio TFM, nel Teeside, è rimasto sbalordito quando ha risposto alla chiamata di una ascoltatrice che ha ammesso di essere stata cannibale. Il DJ Graham Mack aveva lanciato la sfida agli ascoltatori su quale fosse la cosa più inusuale che avessero mai mangiato. E' stato inondato di chiamate sul tipo di cucina esotica che di aspettava: lumache, ricci di mare, cani e cervelli di scimmia (fate schifo, bastardi, ndMW).

Ma quando ha ricevuto la chiamata di Anthea - "ho mangiato esseri umani" - è rimasto per un po' senza parole, poi s'è ripreso: "Ohmioddio. Ok, scommesse finite, nessuno può battere questo... Come accadde che divenisti cannibale?"

"E' stato da bambina in Africa. Andavamo sempre dallo stesso macellaio da un paio d'anni e improvvisamente la carne cominciò a gustare molto meglio. Fu soltanto quando tornammo in Inghilterra un paio d'anni dopo che apprendemmo come il macellaio fosse stato arrestato per avere 'ALLEVATO' piccole bambine di colore".

A questo punto si sentono respiri affannosi nello studio di TFM
Anthea aggiunge: "All'epoca non lo sapevamo. Secondo la mia mamma era carne deliziosa".
Il DJ replica: "Quindi cosa pensavi che fosse, manzo?"
Anthea risponde: "Sì, la mamma diceva che semplicemente comprava carne macinata"


DUE FONDAMENTALI NOTIZIE PAPPAGALLESCHE !

1. Pappagallo depresso curato col Prozac dopo la morte del padrone

Il pappagallo depresso Fred prende l'antidepressivo Prozac dopo che l'uomo che l'ha cresciuto dalla nascita, il suo amato papà George Dance, è morto nove mesi fa.

Il pappagallo grigio africano si strappava le piume del collo tutto il giorno per combattere il suo dolore. Gli etologi pensano che sia andato in grave depressione non potendo capire perché George fosse scomparso.

Ma con una dose due volte al giorno di una versione "uccellesca" del Prozac, chiamata Clomical, è tornato in forma sulla sua pertica.

La vedova di George, Helen del Somerset, ha detto: "Era veramente giù da quando mio marito è morto. Fred era molto vicino a George ed è andato in depressione".

Gli esperti affermano che gli uccelli tropicali sono molto emotivi ed è in crescita il numero di questi che hanno bisogno di antidepressivi.



2. Calopsitta perduto ritrova i padroni parlando loro al telefono

Un calopsitta (se non sai cos'è vedi http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphicus_hollandicus) che si era perduto è ora a casa al sicuro dopo avere confermato il suo nome in una telefonata al proprietario. La ragioniera Sue Hill, che ha trovato l'uccello a Wrexham, è stata messa in contatto con un possibile proprietario da un veterinario locale.

Quando ha chiamato il numero, ha fatto ascoltare all'uccello la voce al telefono, e a quel punto l'uccello ha emesso con uno stridio il suo nome: "Smokey". La signora Hill dice che è stata la prima volta che l'uccello ha parlato, il che l'ha convinta di avere trovato il proprietario.

Il calopsitta grigio si era perso per due giorni dopo essere volato fuori dalla porta di casa di David e Carole Edwards a Wrexham. La signora Hill, che vive a circa due miglia (3.2km) di distanza, l'ha notato su un albero e lui è volato giù sulla sua spalla. Ha detto: "Non sapevo davvero cosa fare, quindi ho continuato a camminare, quando incrocio un tale che passa col suo cane e mi fa 'ma perché non ti prendi un cane come tutti gli altri?' Devo essere apparsa molto sciocca..."



"L'ho portato a casa pensando che altrimenti non sarebbe sopravvissuto. Era una domenica per cui non c'era nessuno che potessi contattare, ma il mattino dopo ho chiamato il veterinario locale che incredibilmente era stato contattato da qualcuno quel mattino stesso". Il veterinario le ha dato il numero di telefono degli Edwards e la signora Hill li ha chiamati per verificare che fossero gli effettivi proprietari.

"Invece di chiedere alla signora Edwards di descrivere l'uccello - poiché probabilmente si assomigliano tutti molto - lei ha urlato il suo nome al telefono e lui ha risposto immediatamente. è stato un momento isterico ed estremamente divertente, a quel punto non avevo più dubbi che loro fossero i proprietari".

Dopo essersi ricongiunto con Smokey, il signor Edwards ha detto: "E' un uccello unico. Mi sono sentito mancare quando è scomparso. Non ho dormito per due notti, è stata la peggiore sensazione al mondo. Non mi vergogno ad ammettere di avere pianto nell'andare a prenderlo. Ero così sollevato che fosse al sicuro. E' un uccello molto chiaccherone, ma mai quando vuoi tu, solo quando vuole lui".


Il travestitismo non è più una malattia in Svezia


Il travestitismo, insieme ad altre sei abitudini sessuali, sarà tolto dalla lista ufficiale svedese delle condizioni mediche il primo gennaio 2009. L'ufficio nazionale della salute e il benessere (Socialstyrelsen) ha preso la decisione di declassificare questi comportamenti come malattie per evitare di rafforzare i pregiudizi nei loro confronti, ha detto il capo dell'agenzia Lars-Erik Holm.

“Non vogliamo contribuire al fatto che alcuni comportamenti sessuali vengano percepiti come malattie. Le preferenze sessuali di queste persone non hanno nulla a che fare con la società". In verità, il sistema diagnostico svedese viene usato per raccogliere statistiche circa il sistema sanitario, tuttavia la percezione comune è che gli elenchi siano un registro delle malattie accettabili.

Le altre diagnosi che presto spariranno dal registro comprendono il feticismo, il travestitismo feticista, il sadomasochismo, i disturbi giovanili di identità sessuale e i disturbi multipli sulle preferenze sessuali. Holm dice che i cambiamenti enfatizzano come questi comportamenti non siano malattie di per se, né abbiano qualcosa di perverso. "Queste diagnosi risalgono a un tempo in cui tutto veniva considerato come perverso a parte la posizione missionaria eterosessuale".

Sono trascorsi 30 anni da quando il Socialstyrelsen prese una decisione analoga nel rimuovere l'omosessualità dalla lista svedese delle diagnosi.


Uomo in uniforme nazista arrestato mentre si apprestava a uccidere un vicino di casa

Un uomo vestito in uniforme nazista della seconda guerra mondiale e dotato di un potente fucile tedesco della stessa epoca ha ammesso sùbito alla polizia la sua missione: stava per commettere un omicidio. "Ha detto agli agenti che stava andando vicino a casa di sua sorella per uccidere un uomo che si lamentava della puzza dei suoi animali (della sorella)", ha dichiarato mercoledì il commissario di polizia Dwayne "Poncho" Munch Senior.

Devin Plaisance, 39 anni, è stato catturato a cinque isolati dall'abitazione della sua potenziale vittima il 10 novembre in questo piccolo sobborgo di New Orleans. Indossava una uniforme nazista con tanto di elmetto e portava con se un Mauser 8mm, le sue tasche piene di munizioni.

"E' un'arma molto pericolosa che può facilmente penetrare i nostri giubbotti anti-proiettile" ha continuato Munch aggiungendo che però non si è trattato di un incidente razziale: "Sono entrambi bianchi, ma il vicino lo prendeva in giro chiamandolo nazista, così si è messo l'uniforme per spaventarlo prima di ucciderlo".

Plaisance è stato inizialmente portato al Centro medico di West Jefferson per una valutazione psichiatrica e poi al carcere di Jefferson Parish, se vuole uscire dal quale dovrà pagare una cauzione di 76mila dollari.


Tribunale tedesco delibera che l'avere tette troppo grosse (ma neppure troppo piccole) non possa essere considerato come una malattia

Un tribunale nello stato tedesco di Hessen ha deliberato che le compagnie di assicurazione non devono coprire i costi della chirurgia per la riduzione del seno poiché averlo molto grande non costituisce un problema medico. La decisione significa che gli assicuratori dovranno pagare solo per operazioni su seni deformi.

Il caso era stato promosso da una donna 38-enne sofferente di problemi ortopedici a causa del peso delle sue tette, ed era stata consigliata dai medici di sottoporsi a chirurgia di riduzione del seno. Ma la sua compagnia di assicurazioni non l'ha considerata come una necessità e quindi ha rifiutato di coprire il costo dell'operazione, sostenendo che soffriva di mal di schiena perché sovrappeso e il suo problema si sarebbe risolto riducendo il peso e con un po' di attività fisica.

Il tribunale ha dato ragione agli assicuratori e la tettona ha perso la causa. Due anni e mezzo fa, il tribunale di Hessen rigettò il caso di una donna che riteneva le sue tette troppo piccole e voleva che l'assicurazione medica coprisse il costo di una operazione di ingrandimento del seno, sostenendo che era fisicamente molestata per le sue tettine, ma il tribunale decise che le tette piccole non costituiscono una malattia.

Carcerato ottiene 300mila dollari per perdita di genitali

Un uomo che afferma avere perduto il suo pene e un testicolo a causa di una diagnosi errata su un batterio mentre era in prigione ha ottenuto un risarcimento di 300mila dollari dallo stato di Washington

Charlie Manning, 61 anni, che ora vive in un camper vicino al lago Cushman sulla Olympic Peninsula, dice di aspettarsi almeno 115mila dollari questa settimana dopo avere pagato gli avvocati ed altre spese. "E' stato un incubo", dice Manning, che fu incarcerato a Stafford Creek nel 2004 dopo essere stato condannato a 13 mesi per avere minacciato un vicino e rubatogli la pistola durante un incidente di ubriachezza nella contea di Mason. Era recidivo di almeno altri tre reati di guida in stato di ebbrezza.

Dopo che gli si è infezionata un'emorroide e i sintomi sono peggiorati con febbre, genitali gonfi e sangue dal retto, il personale medico della prigione lo diagnosticò come allergico alle medicine contro il raffreddore.

Poi un medico all'ospedale di Grays Harbor lo diagnosticò con il batterio mangia-carne (necrotizing fasciitis) e lo inviò via aerea al Centro medico Harborview di Seattle, ma il batterio si era espanso alla sua area pelvica, per cui i chirurghi dovettero rimuovere diverse libbre di carne, compresi il suo pene e un testicolo, per salvargli la vita.

Un pene di ricambio è stato fatto dalla carne di una coscia di Manning.


Uomo di oltre 200 kg posa nudo per un calendario

Un uomo americano che pesa oltre 200 kg e si fa chiamare "Mikey cicciottello" ha posato nudo per un calendario. Il 29-enne di Memphis dice di sentirsi sexy e attraente, perciò è il suo modo di agire



"Non vedo perché non potrei posare per fotografie come ogni altro fotomodello"

Il suo consulente finanziario è così orgoglioso del suo corpo voluttuoso che sta vendendo il calendario per 15 dollari (10 sterline). "Effettivamente è stato molto liberatorio" - ha detto Mikey - che appare come un toro arrabbiato in Maggio e con un cappello natalizio in Dicembre.


I medici trovano un verme nel cervello di una donna

Medici in Arizona pensavano che una donna dell'area di Phoenix potesse avere un tumore al cervello, ma è risultat5o essere altro penetrarlo: un verme. Rosemary Alvarez cominciò a sentire i sintomi di debolezza in un suo braccio e visione alterata. Andò al pronto soccorso due volte per gli esami, che porò sembravano ok.

Non fu finché i medici fecero esami più approfonditi per scoprire qualcosa di veramente preoccupante: il neurochirurgo Peter Nakaji ha detto: "c'è qualcosa nel suo cervello così profondo che più non si può".

Alvarez è stata portata in sala operatoria mentre Nakaji e i suoi colleghi si aspettavano di rimuovere un tumore, ma invece hanno scoperto un verme. In un video dell'operazione, lo stesso Nakaji può essere sentito ridacchiare dopo avere fatto la scoperta.



I medici hano rimosso il verme e non pensano che Alvarez abbia ulteriori problemi. Nessono sa esattamente come la donna abbia preso il verme: i medici dicono che potrebbe venire dal mangiare maiale cucinato male oppure da gente che non si lava le mani dopo usare il cesso.

"basta solo una persona che lo diffonde continuamente per ottenere un sacco di gente esposta e molti di costoro sviluppano il problema" - ha detto Nakaji. Mentre Alvarez, che adesso è in salute e ha ricominciato le attività abituali, dice di sperare che la gente impari dalla sua storia.

"Lavatevi le mani, lavatevi le mani!", ha aggiunto.

Girl of 10 diagnoses herself with Asperger's after reading book

Rosie King realised she had difficulty in identifying facial expressions and making friends like the character she was studying. The book Little Rainman: Autism - Through the Eyes of a Child is designed to educate siblings through a child named Jonathan describing his feelings.

Rosie's six-year-old brother Lenny was diagnosed with Asperger's four years ago and their parents Richard, 43, and Sharon, 38, were keen for her to understand his perspective.

As she and her mother turned the pages of the book by Karen Leigh Simmons and came to a section on Asperger's, Rosie suggested: "I think this might be me." Mrs King, 38, a school lunch supervisor, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said: "We couldn't believe it. It all started to make sense.



"We always knew Lenny was autistic, since he was diagnosed when he was really young. Their behaviours are completely opposite to one another, Lenny barely says a word and is very awkward around people, and lacks any social intent, whereas Rosie has always been highly sociable. She could be a little peculiar, but more than anything we thought she was just a very sociable and happy child."

Rosie was officially diagnosed with mild Asperger's Syndrome thee months ago after a year-long process. The condition is an autistic disorder which can cause communication and emotional problems. Rosie said: "I like having Arperger, it makes me different from other people and gives me a great imagination."

Polémique sur le coût d'un nouveau dôme au siège européen de l'ONU
Mardi 18 novembre, 20h35, AP
La décoration très avant-gardiste du dôme du "Hall XX" qui accueillera le Conseil des droits de l'homme de l'ONU au siège européen des Nations unies à Genève est au coeur d'une polémique à cause de son coût, révélé mardi: 23 millions de dollars (18 millions d'euros). Pour réaliser cette voûte multicolore hérissée de centaines de pointes en forme de stalactites, l'artiste espagnol Miquel Barcelo a utilisé plus de 100 tonnes de peinture avec des pigments venus du monde entier. Il a travaillé avec des architectes, des ingénieurs et même des laboratoires spécialisés dans la physique des particules pour élaborer l'aluminium ultra-résistant utilisé pour la décoration du dôme de 1.500 mètres carrés. Une création artistique dont la réalisation a pris un an. Selon le ministère des Affaires étrangères espagnol, le gouvernement de Madrid a financé les travaux à hauteur de 40%, le reste étant payé par des donateurs privés. Concernant l'argent public utilisé pour le dôme, 500.000 euros proviennent du budget du gouvernement espagnol pour l'aide au développement et le financement d'organisations internationales comme l'ONU. En Espagne, le Parti populaire (PP, opposition) a reproché au gouvernement de José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero d'avoir utilisé des fonds qui auraient pu être dépensés pour lutter contre la pauvreté dans les pays pauvres, mais le ministère des Affaires étrangères assure que l'argent public déboursé pour l'oeuvre de Barcelo vient d'un financement séparé.La polémique a gagné le Parlement espagnol la semaine dernière, le député du Parti populaire Gonzalo Robles demandant "combien de milliers d'enfants on aurait pu s'occuper" avec l'argent dépensé pour cette création artistique. Les socialistes, au pouvoir, l'ont accusé de déformer les faits.Le gouvernement de Madrid n'a pas dit combien il avait payé l'artiste pour cette commande. Une conférence de presse initialement prévue mardi avec Barcelo et le chef de la diplomatie espagnol a été annulée à Genève. Lors d'une cérémonie avec le roi d'Espagne Juan Carlos, le secrétaire général des Nations unies Ban Ki-moon a remercié Barcelo d'avoir mis "ses talents uniques au service du monde". "L'oeuvre d'art que vous avez créée pour cette salle est innovante et rayonnante", a déclaré M. Ban. AP
In 'Eisenhower’s Death Camps': A U.S. Prison Guard Remembers
Martin Brech, Institute for Historical Review

In October 1944, at age eighteen, I was drafted into the U.S. army. Largely because of the “Battle of the Bulge,” my training was cut short, my furlough
was halved, and I was sent overseas immediately. Upon arrival in Le Havre, France, we were quickly loaded into box cars and shipped to the front. When we
got there, I was suffering increasingly severe symptoms of mononucleosis, and was sent to a hospital in Belgium. Since mononucleosis was then known as the
"kissing disease," I mailed a letter of thanks to my girlfriend.

By the time I left the hospital, the outfit I had trained with in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was deep inside Germany, so, despite my protests, I was placed
in a “repo depot” (replacement depot). I lost interest in the units to which I was assigned, and don't recall all of them: non-combat units were
ridiculed at that time. My separation qualification record states I was mostly with Company C, 14th Infantry Regiment, during my seventeen-month stay in
Germany, but I remember being transferred to other outfits also.

In late March or early April 1945, I was sent to guard a POW camp near Andernach along the Rhine. I had four years of high school German, so I was able
to talk to the prisoners, although this was forbidden. Gradually, however, I was used as an interpreter and asked to ferret out members of the S.S. (I found
none.)

In Andernach about 50,000 prisoners of all ages were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The women were kept in a separate enclosure that I
did not see until later. The men I guarded had no shelter and no blankets. Many had no coats. They slept in the mud, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches
for excrement. It was a cold, wet spring, and their misery from exposure alone was evident.

Even more shocking was to see the prisoners throwing grass and weeds into a tin can containing a thin soup. They told me they did this to help ease their hunger
pains. Quickly they grew emaciated. Dysentery raged, and soon they were sleeping in their own excrement, too weak and crowded to reach the slit trenches. Many
were begging for food, sickening and dying before our eyes. We had ample food and supplies, but did nothing to help them, including no medical assistance.

Outraged, I protested to my officers and was met with hostility or bland indifference. When pressed, they explained they were under strict orders from
“higher up.” No officer would dare do this to 50,000 men if he felt that it was “out of line,” leaving him open to charges. Realizing my protests were
useless, I asked a friend working in the kitchen if he could slip me some extra food for the prisoners. He too said they were under strict orders to severely
ration the prisoners’ food, and that these orders came from “higher up.” But he said they had more food than they knew what to do with, and would sneak
me some.

When I threw this food over the barbed wire to the prisoners, I was caught and threatened with imprisonment. I repeated the “offense,” and one officer
angrily threatened to shoot me. I assumed this was a bluff until I encountered a captain on a hill above the Rhine shooting down at a group of German civilian
women with his .45 caliber pistol. When I asked, “Why?,” he mumbled, “Target practice," and fired until his pistol was empty. I saw the women
running for cover, but, at that distance, couldn't tell if any had been hit.

This is when I realized I was dealing with cold-blooded killers filled with moralistic hatred. They considered the Germans subhuman and worthy of
extermination; another expression of the downward spiral of racism. Articles in the G.I. newspaper, Stars and Stripes, played up the German concentration camps,
complete with photos of emaciated bodies. This amplified our self-righteous cruelty, and made it easier to imitate behavior we were supposed to oppose.
Also, I think, soldiers not exposed to combat were trying to prove how tough they were by taking it out on the prisoners and civilians.

These prisoners, I found out, were mostly farmers and workingmen, as simple and ignorant as many of our own troops. As time went on, more of them lapsed into a
zombie-like state of listlessness, while others tried to escape in a demented or suicidal fashion, running through open fields in broad daylight towards the
Rhine to quench their thirst. They were mowed down.

Some prisoners were as eager for cigarettes as for food, saying they took the edge off their hunger. Accordingly, enterprising G.I. “Yankee traders” were
acquiring hordes of watches and rings in exchange for handfuls of cigarettes or less. When I began throwing cartons of cigarettes to the prisoners to ruin this
trade, I was threatened by rank-and-file G.I.s too.

The only bright spot in this gloomy picture came one night when. I was put on the “graveyard shift,” from two to four a.m. Actually, there was a graveyard
on the uphill side of this enclosure, not many yards away. My superiors had forgotten to give me a flashlight and I hadn't bothered to ask for one,
disgusted as I was with the whole situation by that time. It was a fairly bright night and I soon became aware of a prisoner crawling under the wires towards the
graveyard. We were supposed to shoot escapees on sight, so I started to get up from the ground to warn him to get back. Suddenly I noticed another prisoner
crawling from the graveyard back to the enclosure. They were risking their lives to get to the graveyard for something. I had to investigate.

When I entered the gloom of this shrubby, tree-shaded cemetery, I felt completely vulnerable, but somehow curiosity kept me moving. Despite my caution,
I tripped over the legs of someone in a prone position. Whipping my rifle around while stumbling and trying to regain composure of mind and body, I soon was
relieved I hadn't reflexively fired. The figure sat up. Gradually, I could see the beautiful but terror-stricken face of a woman with a picnic basket
nearby. German civilians were not allowed to feed, nor even come near the prisoners, so I quickly assured her I approved of what she was doing, not to be
afraid, and that I would leave the graveyard to get out of the way.

I did so immediately and sat down, leaning against a tree at the edge of the cemetery to be inconspicuous and not frighten the prisoners. I imagined then,
and still do now, what it would be like to meet a beautiful woman with a picnic basket under those conditions as a prisoner. I have never forgotten her face.

Eventually, more prisoners crawled back to the enclosure. I saw they were dragging food to their comrades, and could only admire their courage and
devotion.

On May 8, V.E. Day [1945], I decided to celebrate with some prisoners I was guarding who were baking bread the other prisoners occasionally received. This
group had all the bread they could eat, and shared the jovial mood generated by the end of the war. We all thought we were going home soon, a pathetic hope on
their part. We were in what was to become the French zone [of occupation], where I soon would witness the brutality of the French soldiers when we transferred
our prisoners to them for their slave labor camps.

On this day, however, we were happy.

As a gesture of friendliness, I emptied my rifle and stood it in the corner, even allowing them to play with it at their request. This thoroughly “broke
the ice,” and soon we were singing songs we taught each other, or that I had learned in high school German class (“Du, du, liegst mir im Herzen”). Out of
gratitude, they baked me a special small loaf of sweet bread, the only possible present they had left to offer. I stuffed it in my “Eisenhower jacket,” and
snuck it back to my barracks, eating it when I had privacy. I have never tasted more delicious bread, nor felt a deeper sense of communion while eating it. I
believe a cosmic sense of Christ (the Oneness of all Being) revealed its normally hidden presence to me on that occasion, influencing my later decision
to major in philosophy and religion.

Shortly afterwards, some of our weak and sickly prisoners were marched off by French soldiers to their camp. We were riding on a truck behind this column.
Temporarily, it slowed down and dropped back, perhaps because the driver was as shocked as I was. Whenever a German prisoner staggered or dropped back, he was
hit on the head with a club and killed. The bodies were rolled to the side of the road to be picked up by another truck. For many, this quick death might have
been preferable to slow starvation in our “killing fields.”

When I finally saw the German women held in a separate enclosure, I asked why we were holding them prisoner. I was told they were “camp followers,”
selected as breeding stock for the S.S. to create a super-race. I spoke to some, and must say I never met a more spirited or attractive group of women. I
certainly didn't think they deserved imprisonment.

More and more I was used as an interpreter, and was able to prevent some particularly unfortunate arrests. One somewhat amusing incident involved an old
farmer who was being dragged away by several M.P.s. I was told he had a “fancy Nazi medal,” which they showed me. Fortunately, I had a chart identifying such
medals. He'd been awarded it for having five children! Perhaps his wife was somewhat relieved to get him “off her back,”but I didn't think one of
our death camps was a fair punishment for his contribution to Germany. The M.P.s agreed and released him to continue his “dirty work.”

Famine began to spread among the German civilians also. It was a common sight to see German women up to their elbows in our garbage cans looking for something
edible -- that is, if they weren't chased away.

When I interviewed mayors of small towns and villages, I was told that their supply of food had been taken away by “displaced persons” (foreigners who
had worked in Germany), who packed the food on trucks and drove away. When I reported this, the response was a shrug. I never saw any Red Cross at the camp
or helping civilians, although their coffee and doughnut stands were available everywhere else for us. In the meantime, the Germans had to rely on the sharing
of hidden stores until the next harvest.

Hunger made German women more “available," but despite this, rape was prevalent and often accompanied by additional violence. In particular I remember
an eighteen-year old woman who had the side of her faced smashed with a rifle butt, and was then raped by two G.I.s. Even the French complained that the
rapes, looting and drunken destructiveness on the part of our troops was excessive. In Le Havre, we’d been given booklets warning us that the German
soldiers had maintained a high standard of behavior with French civilians who were peaceful, and that we should do the same. In this we failed miserably.

“So what?” some would say. “The enemy's atrocities were worse than ours.” It is true that I experienced only the end of the war, when we were
already the victors. The German opportunity for atrocities had faded, while ours was at hand. But two wrongs don't make a right. Rather than copying our
enemy's crimes, we should aim once and for all to break the cycle of hatred and vengeance that has plagued and distorted human history. This is why I am
speaking out now, 45 years after the crime. We can never prevent individual war crimes, but we can, if enough of us speak out, influence government policy. We
can reject government propaganda that depicts our enemies as subhuman and encourages the kind of outrages I witnessed. We can protest the bombing of
civilian targets, which still goes on today. And we can refuse ever to condone our government’s murder of unarmed and defeated prisoners of war.

I realize it’s difficult for the average citizen to admit witnessing a crime of this magnitude, especially if implicated himself. Even G.I.s sympathetic to
the victims were afraid to complain and get into trouble, they told me. And the danger has not ceased. Since I spoke out a few weeks ago, I have received
threatening calls and had my mailbox smashed. But its been worth it. Writing about these atrocities has been a catharsis of feelings suppressed too long, a
liberation, that perhaps will remind other witnesses that “the truth will make us free, have no fear.” We may even learn a supreme lesson from all this: only
love can conquer all.

---

Martin Brech lives in Mahopac, New York. When he wrote this memoir essay in 1990, he was an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Mercy College in
Dobbs Ferry, New York. Brech holds a master’s degree in theology from Columbia University, and is a Unitarian-Universalist minister. This essay, written in 1990, was published in The Journal of Historical Review,
Summer 1990 (Vol. 10, No. 2), pp. 161-166. (Revised, updated: Nov. 2008)

For Further Reading

James Bacque, Crimes and Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied
Occupation, 1944-1950 (Toronto: Little, Brown and Co., 1997)

James Bacque, Other Losses: An investigation into the mass deaths of German
prisoners at the hands of the French and Americans after World War II (Toronto:
Stoddart, 1989)

John Dietrich, The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy
(New York: Algora, 2002)

Ralph Franklin Keeling, Gruesome Harvest: The Allies’ Postwar War Against the
German People (IHR, 1992). Originally published in Chicago in 1947.

Giles MacDonogh, After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation
(New York: Basic Books, 2007)

Mark Weber, “New Book Details Mass Killings and Brutal Mistreatment of
Germans at the End of World War Two” (Summer 2007)
http://www.ihr.org/other/afterthereich072007.html

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, Nemesis at Postsdam (Lincoln, Neb.: 1990)

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the
Eastern European Germans, 1944-1950 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993) /
1994)

WESTERN SECRETS FOR MOSCOW -
Estonian Spy Scandal Shakes NATO and EU

By Holger Stark, Der Spiegel

For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU -- and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels.

Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear's world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information.

Although Simm was arrested with his wife Heete in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Sept. 21, this spy story -- which has been largely kept under wraps until now -- primarily concerns the European Union and NATO based in faraway Brussels. Since Simm was responsible for dealing with classified information in Tallinn, he had access to nearly all documents exchanged within the EU and NATO. Officials who are familiar with the case assume that "virtually everything" that circulates between EU member states was passed on to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR -- including confidential analyses by NATO on the Kosovo crisis, the war in Georgia and even the missile defense program. Investigators believe that Simm was a "big fish."

Estonian capital city Tallinn: For the former Soviet state, the scandal has become the downside of a political success story.

Meanwhile, a number of investigative teams from the EU and NATO have flown to Tallinn to probe the extent of the intelligence disaster. The investigation is being led by the NATO Office for Security, which is headed by an American official. As investigators pursue their work, they continue to unearth mounting evidence pointing to the enormity of the betrayal. A German government official has called the situation a "catastrophe," and Jaanus Rahumägi, a member of Estonia's national parliament who heads the parliamentary oversight committee for the government security agency, fears "historic damage."

NATO officials in Brussels are comparing Simm's alleged spying to the case of Aldrich Ames, a former CIA agent who for years funneled information to the Russian intelligence service, the KGB. However, the extensive fallout of the Estonian leaks makes this the worst espionage scandal since the end of the Cold War.

The case reveals how vulnerable the alliance has become in the wake of the expansion of NATO and the EU into Eastern Europe. When the decision was made to allow Estonia -- a tiny country with a population of only 1.3 million -- and six other countries into NATO and the EU in 2004, then-German Defense Minister Peter Struck of the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD) expressed delight with this "great step on the way toward an undivided and free Europe, toward more security" and toward "a stronger NATO."

In Tallinn the downside of this political success story is now rearing its ugly head. Within the alliance, Estonia is not treated much differently than Italy or Germany when it comes to sensitive information. For a large power like Russia, which has always more or less rejected NATO and observed the expansion of the EU with suspicion, taking a slight detour through the Baltic States was the perfect way to reach into the heart of Brussels with a reasonably low level of risk. Thanks to Simm's alleged help, the Russians apparently achieved this with ease.

Investigators now assume that Simm established contact with the Russian intelligence service as early as the late 1980s. At the time, Estonia was striving for independence and it was clear that Moscow would eventually lose the Baltic Republics. Now was the time for Russia to secure its influence. When Estonia's NATO membership was first discussed "in the mid-1990s, Simm was officially recruited by the Russian government," claims Rahumägi. There is evidence indicating that the relationship was fairly loose to begin with. It's possible the KGB successor organization, the SVR, kept Simm as a "sleeper."

Simm rapidly advanced through the ranks, and in 1994 he became the Estonian chief of police. Later, he was transferred as a department head to the Defense Ministry, where he was responsible for the secret coordination with NATO and the EU. After Tallinn joined the EU in 2004, his position became tremendously valuable to Moscow.

NATO headquarters in Brussels: The worst espionage scandal since the end of the Cold War.

It remains to be seen whether money was a motive for Simm's alleged actions. What is clear, however, is that the high-ranking ministerial official from Tallinn owns half a dozen plots of land and properties, including a farm near the Baltic coast and a lavishly renovated, whitewashed residence in the small city of Saue near Tallinn. Investigators began to observe this house when an increasing number of clues about the Simm's alleged contact man started to surface. The contact man is believed to be an SVR agent traveling around Europe on a fake Spanish passport. Meanwhile, officials at the Estonian Public Prosecutor's Office are hoping to press charges against Simm in early 2009.

Right now, NATO is extremely interested in "deciphering the Russians' game plan," sources in Brussels say. Later, though, the case is expected to result in far-reaching changes in the manner in which classified material is handled within the alliance. A comprehensive probe to seek further leaks in Eastern Europe is also expected.

"We have to assume," says a Brussels official, "that the Russian intelligence apparatus maintains a number of Simms in the Baltic States."

URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,590891,00.html
The Worst Is Not Behind Us
Beware of those who say we've hit the bottom

By Nouriel Roubini
Forbes.com, 11-16-8

It is useful, at this juncture, to stand back and survey the economic landscape--both as it is now, and as it has been in recent months. So here is a
summary of many of the points that I have made for the last few months on the outlook for the U.S. and global economy, as well as for financial markets:

--The U.S. will experience its most severe recession since World War II, much worse and longer and deeper than even the 1974-1975 and 1980-1982 recessions.
The recession will continue until at least the end of 2009 for a cumulative gross domestic product drop of over 4%; the unemployment rate will likely reach
9%. The U.S. consumer is shopped-out, saving less and debt-burdened: This will be the worst consumer recession in decades.

--The prospect of a short and shallow six- to eight-month V-shaped recession is out of the window; a U-shaped 18- to 24-month recession is now a certainty, and
the probability of a worse, multi-year L-shaped recession (as in Japan in the 1990s) is still small but rising. Even if the economy were to exit a recession
by the end of 2009, the recovery could be so weak because of the impairment of the financial system and the credit mechanism that it may feel like a recession
even if the economy is technically out of the recession.

--Obama will inherit an economic and financial mess worse than anything the U.S. has faced in decades: the most severe recession in 50 years; the worst
financial and banking crisis since the Great Depression; a ballooning fiscal deficit that may be as high as a trillion dollars in 2009 and 2010; a huge
current account deficit; a financial system that is in a severe crisis and where deleveraging is still occurring at a very rapid pace, thus causing a worsening
of the credit crunch; a household sector where millions of households are insolvent, into negative equity territory and on the verge of losing their
homes; a serious risk of deflation as the slack in goods, labor and commodity markets becomes deeper; the risk that we will end in a deflationary liquidity
trap as the Fed is fast approaching the zero-bound constraint for the Fed funds rate; the risk of a severe debt deflation as the real value of nominal
liabilities will rise, given price deflation, while the value of financial assets is still plunging.

--The world economy will experience a severe recession: Output will sharply contract in the Eurozone, the U.K. and the rest of Europe, as well as in Canada,
Japan and Australia/New Zealand. There is also a risk of a hard landing in emerging market economies. Expect global growth--at market prices--to be close
to zero in Q3 and negative by Q4. Leaving aside the effects of the fiscal stimulus, China could face a hard landing growth rate of 6% in 2009. The global
recession will continue through most of 2009.

--The advanced economies will face stag-deflation (stagnation/recession and deflation) rather than stagflation, as the slack in goods, labor and commodity
markets will lead advanced economies' inflation rates to become below 1% by 2009.

--Expect a few advanced economies (certainly the U.S. and Japan and possibly others) to reach the zero-bound constraint for policy rates by early 2009. With
deflation on the horizon, zero-bound on interest rates implies the risk of a liquidity trap where money and bonds become perfectly substitutable, where real
interest rates become high and rising, thus further pushing down aggregate demand, and where money market fund returns cannot even cover their management
costs. Deflation also implies a debt deflation where the real value of nominal debts is rising, thus increasing the real burden of such debts. Monetary policy easing
will become more aggressive in other advanced economies even if the European Central Bank cuts too little too late. But monetary policy easing will be
scarcely effective, as it will be pushing on a string, given the glut of global aggregate supply relative to demand--and given a very severe credit crunch.

--For 2009, the consensus estimates for earnings are delusional: Current consensus estimates are that S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) will be $90 in
2009, up 15% from 2008. Such estimates are outright silly. If EPS falls--as is most likely--to a level of $60, then with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 12,
the S&P 500 index could fall to 720 (i.e. about 20% below current levels). If the P/E falls to 10--as is possible in a severe recession--the S&P could be down to 600, or 35% below current levels.
And in a very severe recession, one cannot exclude that EPS could fall as low as $50 in 2009, dragging the S&P 500 index to as low as 500. So, even based
on fundamentals and valuations, there are significant downside risks to U.S. equities (20% to 40%). Similar arguments can be made for global equities: A severe global recession implies further downside risks to global equities in the order of 20% to
30%.Thus, the recent rally in U.S. and global equities was only a bear-market sucker's rally that is already fizzling out--buried under a mountain of
worse-than-expected macro, earnings and financial news.

--Credit losses will be well above $1 trillion and closer to $2 trillion, as such losses will spread from subprime to near-prime and prime mortgages and home
equity loans (and the related securitized products); to commercial real estate, to credit cards, auto loans and student loans; to leveraged loans and LBOs, to
muni bonds, corporate bonds, industrial and commercial loans and credit default swaps. These credit losses will lead to a severe credit crunch, absent a rapid
and aggressive recapitalization of financial institutions.

--Almost all of the $700 billion in the TARP program will be used to recapitalize U.S. financial institutions (banks, broker dealers, insurance
companies, finance companies) as rising credit losses (close to $2 trillion) will imply that the initial $250 billion allocated to recap these institutions
will not be enough. Sooner rather than later, a TARP-2 will become necessary, as the recapitalization needs of U.S. financial institutions will likely be well
above $1 trillion.

--Current spreads on speculative-grade bonds may widen further as a tsunami of defaults will hit the corporate sector; investment-grade bond spreads have
widened excessively relative to financial fundamentals, but further spread-widening is possible, driven by market dynamics, deleveraging and the
fact that many AAA-rated firms (say, GE) are not really AAA, and should be downgraded by the rating agencies.

--Expect a U.S. fiscal deficit of almost $1 trillion in 2009 and 2010. The outlook for the U.S. current account deficit is mixed: The recession, a rise in
private savings and a fall in investment, and a further fall in commodity prices will tend to shrink it, but a stronger dollar, global demand weakness and a
larger U.S. fiscal deficit will tend to worsen it. On net, we will observe still-large U.S. twin fiscal and current account deficits--and less willingness
and ability in the rest of the world to finance it unless the interest rate on such debt rises.

--In this economic and financial environment, it is wise to stay away from most risky assets for the next 12 months: There are downside risks to U.S. and global
equities; credit spreads--especially for the speculative grade--may widen further; commodity prices will fall another 20% from current levels; gold will
also fall as deflation sets in; the U.S. dollar may weaken further in the next six to 12 months as the factors behind the recent rally weather off, while
medium-term bearish fundamentals for the dollar set in again; government bond yields in the U.S. and advanced economies may fall further as recession and
deflation emerge but, over time, the surge in fiscal deficits in the U.S. and globally will reduce the supply of global savings and lead to higher long-term
interest rates unless the fall in global real investment outpaces the fall in global savings. Expect further downside risks to emerging-markets assets (in particular,
equities and local and foreign currency debt), especially in economies with significant macro, policy and financial vulnerabilities. Cash and cash-like instruments (short-term dated government bonds and inflation-indexed bonds that
do well both in inflation and deflation times) will dominate most risky assets. So, serious risks and vulnerabilities remain, and the downside risks to
financial markets (worse than expected macro news, earnings news and developments in systemically important parts of the global financial system)
will, over the next few months, overshadow the positive news (G-7 policies to avoid a systemic meltdown, and other policies that--in due time--may reduce
interbank spreads and credit spreads). Beware, therefore, of those who tell you that we have reached a bottom for
risky financial assets. The same optimists told you that we reached a bottom and the worst was behind us after the rescue of the creditors of Bear Stearns in
March; after the announcement of the possible bailout of Fannie and Freddie in July; after the actual bailout of Fannie and Freddie in September; after the
bailout of AIG (nyse: AIG -news - people ) in mid-September; after the TARP legislation was presented; and after the latest G-7 and E.U. action. In each case, the optimists argued that the latest crisis and rescue policy
response was the cathartic event that signaled the bottom of the crisis and the recovery of markets. They were wrong literally at least six times in a row as
the crisis--as I have consistently predicted over the last year--became worse and worse. So enough of the excessive optimism that has been proved wrong at
least six times in the last eight months alone. A reality check is needed to assess risks--and to take appropriate action. And
reality tells us that we barely avoided, only a week ago, a total systemic financial meltdown; that the policy actions are now finally more aggressive and
systematic, and more appropriate; that it will take a long while for interbank and credit markets to mend; that further important policy actions are needed to
avoid the meltdown and an even more severe recession; that central banks, instead of being the lenders of last resort, will be, for now, the lenders of
first and only resort; that even if we avoid a meltdown, we will experience a severe U.S., advanced economy and, most likely, global recession, the worst in
decades; that we are in the middle of a severe global financial and banking crisis, the worst since the Great Depression; and that the flow of macro,
earnings and financial news will significantly surprise (as during the last few weeks) on the downside with significant further risks to financial markets.

I'll stop now.

Nouriel Roubini, a professor at the Stern Business School at New York
University and chairman of
Roubini Global Economics, is a weekly columnist for Forbes.com.

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/11/12/recession-global-economy-oped-cx_nr_1113roubini.html