Germany remembers Berlin airlift

Ex-US pilot Gail Halvorsen returned to Germany for the ceremony
Germany has been commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Berlin airlift, when the Western allies kept the city supplied despite a Soviet blockade.

Veterans of the airlift, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s, attended ceremonies in Berlin and Frankfurt.

The American and British-led airlift lasted for more than a year, and involved planes delivering everything from coal to sweets.

It was one of the biggest humanitarian air relief missions in history.
REUTERS

Pentagon making case against Iran
A DoD report released to Congress ahead of a vote on extreme punitive measures on Iran accuses Tehran of assisting Afghan insurgents.

In its first ever Report on Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan to the US Congress, the Pentagon claims it has 'evidence' of Iranian involvement in the war-torn country.

"There is evidence that the insurgency ... has been provided with lethal aid originating in Iran since at least 2006," says the report.

It is 'unclear what role, and at what level the Iranian government plays in providing this assistance', the 72-page document adds.

Iran, however, says it has helped in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and has played only a constructive role in the country.

The release of the report comes ahead of a vote on the imposition of harsher US sanctions on Iranian banks, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and any energy companies that have invested $20,000,000 or more in the Iranian petroleum or natural gas sector in any given year since the enactment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996.

If the bill passes, US President George W. Bush will also be urged to gain world support to prohibit the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products and to impose stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran.

Introduced by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and considered a tacit declaration of war against the Islamic Republic, the bill has seen opposition but may pass.

House Resolution 362 and the Senate version Resolution 580, known as the 'Iran War Resolution', are believed to be a prelude to the imposition of a naval blockade restricting exports to oil-rich Iran.

This bill has gained 208 co-sponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate. It will likely be put to a vote after July 4.

The US foreign policy and especially their 'reports' only make me angry. These people are a bunch of thieves and terrorists.

The illegal, immoral poll in Zimbawee which puts the ignorant dictator safely back in the seat, the seat which he never vacated, whilst his drongo's go round killing and intimidating his "citizens" into voting for him.

Fumée d'Ambre Gris, 1880
by John Singer Sargent, American, 1856-1925

Although portraiture is the key public enterprise for which John Singer Sargent is remembered today, the foundation of his early reputation was also built upon the innovative subject paintings inspired by the artist's travels to exotic locales during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Fumée d'ambre gris was Sargent's major souvenir from a trip to Tangier in the winter months of 1879-1880. The painting's non-narrative structure and monochromaticism, as well as its mysterious ambiance, ensured that it was repeatedly singled out for praise at the Paris Salon later that spring.
With this representation of a North African woman infusing her robes and senses with the musky perfume of ambergris (a resinous substance extracted from whales and considered an aphrodisiac as well as a guard against evil spirits), Sargent entered into the list of artists who, from the 1860s to the turn of the century, popularized exotic images of Near-Eastern culture to Western audiences. However, unlike artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824-1904), who relied upon heightened realism to lend veracity to the narrative of their paintings, Sargent's preoccupation in Fumée d'ambre gris was not with the subject matter.

Common Dreams, good topics and well written articles:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/29/9964/

Worlds apart

1-Cambodian little girl 12 yo, Phektra lives in the Cambodian village Skoun that is well-known for its black fried spiders. Phektra catches and collects the tarantulas in the forest behind her house and sells the fried eight-legged at the bus station in order to earn some money for the school. Her mother died 2005 and her father died 2006 by HIV/AIDS.











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