Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it's asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills - causing a drop on worldmarkets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai's reputation as a magnet for international investment.
Markets took the news badly - with the Dubai woes and the continued fall of the US dollar giving investors twin worries.
The term that Fox News is now applying to the Climategate e-mails is “game-changer”. For the first time, Anthropogenic Global Warming cranks are on the defensive, losing their cool and uttering desperate mantras such as “You can be sceptical, not denial.” Gee, thanks, guys. In fact we shall be whatever we want to be, without asking your permission.
Emissaries of the Obama administration have been traveling around Judea and Samaria in recent weeks, asking residents about construction in their towns and passing the information back to Washington. In Efrat, for instance, the “capital” of Gush Etzion, Regional Council head Sha’ul Goldstein met with an American diplomat who asked for a briefing on the pace of construction in the region. [...]
Elyakim Haetzni, a long-time resident of Kiryat Arba, 25 minutes to the south, is more wary. In a letter to his fellow settlers this week, Haetzni wrote, “It is likely that an American investigator/supervisor will arrive in your town. We should not cooperate in any way with those who come openly to restrict our progress and to actually uproot us from our roots.”
“In light of the pressure constantly being exerted upon us from the Americans,” Haetzni continued, “cooperation with them is like a victim cooperating with his executioner.”
The Liberal Party is in turmoil with the resignations of five frontbenchers from their portfolios this afternoon in protest against the emissions trading scheme.
Tony Abbott, Sophie Mirabella, Tony Smith and Senators Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz have all quit their portfolios because they cannot vote for the legislation.
Senate whip Stephen Parry has also relinquished his position.
VIENNA — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that his probe of allegations that Iran tried to make nuclear arms is at "a dead end" because Tehran is not cooperating and warned that confidence in Tehran had shrunk in the wake of its belated revelation of a previously secret nuclear facility.
Mohamed ElBaradei also criticized Tehran for not accepting an internationally endorsed plan meant to delay its ability to make such weapons.
The unusually blunt comments appeared to be a reflection of frustration four days before he ends his tenure leading an agency that has proven unable to overcome Iran's defiance and ease international concerns that it may be using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for plans to make weapons.Time to release the hounds. Bibi...all yours.
Crashing a state dinner at the White House apparently takes a security breakdown as well as some kind of nerve.Warm fuzzy.
The Secret Service is looking into its own security procedures after determining that a Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, managed to slip into Tuesday night's state dinner at the White House even though they were not on the guest list, agency spokesman Ed Donovan said.
