Tuesday 15 January 2008

A Place in the Auvergne, Tuesday, 15th January, 2008

0840





DRESDEN
Police officers on guard as a 300 year-old beech tree was cut down Tuesday in Dresden to make way for building a bridge over the Elbe. Earlier, the police forcibly removed 10 protesters who had been living in the tree, after breaking through supporters on the ground.





JERUSALEM

Among the dead in Gaza was the son of Mahmoud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas. The son, Hussam Zahar, 21, was a member of the Hamas military wing...and was killed in an Israeli air strike...
At about 9 in the morning, several hours into the operation, the Ecuadorean volunteer was shot while working a potato field at Kibbutz Ein Hashlohsa, a farm about 100 meters from the border fence, military officials said. He was identified as Carlos Chavez, 20.








LAS VEGAS
"Many Latino's are not ready for a person of color," said Natasha Carrillo, 20, of East Los Angeles. "I don't think many Latinos will vote for Obama."







NEW YORK

"Following extensive review, the risk assessment did not identify any unique risks for human food from cattle, swine or goat clones, and concluded that there is sufficient information to determine that food from cattle, swine or goat cloness is as safe to eat as that from their more conventionally bred counterparts," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.








PARIS
The 10-year-old son of President Nicolas Sarkozy has received death threats, the French interior minister said Tuesday.




DETROIT

The Toyota Venza, a new model described by the company as a crossover sedan, is meant for drivers who are no longer interested in driving SUVs or conventional crossovers, yet like a higher sitting position.




PARIS
In a first, the majority of births in France last year were out of wedlock, the national statistics agency announced Tuesday...
"What's led the rise in out-of-wedlock births is that a lifestyle that was once confined in Paris is now the norm even in rural areas. Marriage is no longer considered indispensable to form a family."






NEW YORK
At the Dior Homme flagship boutique in Paris, teenagers sometimes swing by with their fathers. Buying a €1,300 suit for special occasions is not uncommon, notes Sidney Toledano, Dior's president...
"It's that post-'metrosexual' generation. They read Men's Vogue or Details , and it's not considered gay to be interested in fashion," said Michael Macko, vice president and men's fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue. "Going shopping with your girlfriend is an activity, like going to the movies."






ANKARA
Arife Tunar's eyes welled up when asked about visiting the museum. She was visiting from Germany, and had come twice.
"I'm 52 years old, and I don't remember any other occasion that made me so emotional," she said, picking out an Ataturk magnet. Ataturk ties, cuff links and makeup mirrors were arranged in adjoining display cases. "My love for him is hard to explain."






"The focus of the channel will be to the focus of Oprah's brand. which is to educate and inspire people to live the best life they can."





PARIS
"What we need is a new narrative, a new 'we'. a multicolored, multicultural European identity," [Tariq Ramadan] said. "Immigration is a fact whether you like it or not. Europeans need to psychologically integrate that into their world view."




LONDON
Many of the excesses of the debt boom in Britain have been on a par with, or even worse than, those in the United States, notably higher levels of consumer debt and house prices that are even more out of proportion with earnings...
The British economy has had an extraordinary run. Growth has been strong and stable, inflation low and controlled. But that very stability has encouraged a borrowing binge that has juiced economic performance, taking the ratio of debt to disposable income to 173 percent and nearly tripling house prices.
"It's not been an in investment-led productivity project, it's been a consumption boom," said Ross Walker, U.K. economist at Royal Bank of Scotland in London. "The idea that plowing ever more money into the housing stock is the raising productive capacity of the system is just a joke."





"If you're a road warrior doing 20 or 25 trans-Atlantics a year, let me tell you, you can't do that from a coach seat without beating your body up," Moss said.
"Road warriors today go from airplane to meetings, and go right back to an airplane. They take their laptops with them. They try to sleep."




Email from a reader of A Place in My Country.

Ian,
Have just finished reading your book and in view of your surprise at the price of houses in [the village] thought you might be even more horrified at the enclosed print from the local Standard last Thursday. Hope you have cut down on the booze and fags since you were living here!
Pam W.







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