Interessant bok: On Bullshit av filosofiprofessor Harry G. Frankfurt. Princeton. Han spør: hvorfor blir vi så opprørt over løgner, men reagerer ikke på alt det andre som er skrevet uten hensyn til sannhet. Store deler av samfunnet blir drevet ut fra bullshit-prinsippet: underholdning, medier, politikk: er ikke først og fremst opptatt av hva som er […]
Det religiøse politiet i Saudi-Arabia, mutawwaaen, har forbudt salg av røde roser, fordi det hører til Valentiner-dagen, som tolkes som en kristen festival. Politiet patruljerer flere ganger om dagen og kontrollerer at blomsterbutikkene ikke selger røde roser. Mutawwaeen er mislikt for sin nidkjærhet av mange. Politiet er dog finansiert at det offentlige.
The Italian government will not pay a ransom to free journalist Giuliana Sgrena, kidnapped in Iraq more than a week ago, and does not know who is holding her, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said. Fini said the government was working to secure her release through «political, diplomatic and intelligence efforts». «Italy does not have dealings […]
A British man was charged on Monday with being part of a plot to carry out a bomb attack in the UK. Salahuddin Amin, who was arrested at Heathrow last week as he stepped off a flight from Pakistan, was charged with «maliciously conspiring with others to cause by explosive substances … an explosion likely […]
Iran rejected a European demand to stop building a heavy water nuclear reactor in return for a light-water reactor Sunday, hardening Iran’s position on a key part of its nuclear facilities that critics claim is part of a weapons program. (nyt/ap) Iran has given indications in the past that it will insist on keeping its […]
Forfatteren Salman Rushdie har fremdeles grunn til å frykte for sitt liv, 16 år etter at ayatollah Khomeini dømte ham til døden. Den iranske revolusjonsgarden slo lørdag fast at dødsdommen gjelder ennå og at forfatteren risikerer å bli henrettet. NTB/VG
The Bush administration came under pressure on Thursday to make public the full classified version of a report from the 9/11 commission that is critical of the government’s failure to heed aviation threats before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The administration delivered a declassified version of the report to the […]
The Federal Aviation Administration received repeated warnings in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2001, about al-Qaida and its desire to attack airlines, according to a previously undisclosed report by the commission that investigated the terror attacks. The report by the Sept. 11 commission detailed 52 such warnings given to FAA leaders from April to […]
10.02: Ah! hvor kjedelig avisene skriver, når historiene ligger rett fremfor dem. Det ble sagt om Condis tale i Paris at den var full av underliggende følelsesmessig spenning. Dette var en viktig tale. Condi er en spennende person: hun hentet fram bilder på frihetslengsel fra sin egen bakgrunn: hun snakket om at borgerrettsbevegelsen begynte med […]
A survivor of the Holocaust has called on Ken Livingstone to apologise for remarks he made in an exchange with an Evening Standard journalist, comparing the reporter to a «concentration camp guard». The mayor of London told the reporter, Oliver Finegold, that he should not be working for a paper that has a «record of […]
