Bangkok Post Breaking News
The News Review:
- Bangkok Post Breaking News
- Property-Casualty Slides Into A Down Cycle
- STLtoday – News – Special Reports
- Another comback on the Sly
- Sunday Herald: Life: People, Lifestyles & Living Today
- Local dead include a mix of races, backgrounds and home towns.
Bangkok Post Breaking News
Bangkok Post – Mar 11, 2008
“I think they are worried about how their struggle will be carried out in the future. ”
Neither the date nor place of executions is announced in advance in Indonesia. The Bali bombing shook the Indonesian government out of its denial that it had a home-grown terrorist problem with militants inspired by Osama bin Laden, the elusive leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist movement. Within weeks after the Bali bombings – at the time the worst since the September 11 attacks in the US – Indonesia’s parliament passed tough anti-terrorism legislation that was later used to convict the bombers. JI is blamed for several simultaneous church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000; bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005; the JW Marriott bombing in Jakarta in 2004 and an explosion at the entrance to the Australian Embassy in 2005. Although the attacks shocked and angered mainstream Indonesian Muslims, the visiting friends and families at Batu prison Monday expressed adoration for the terrorists in their midst. “You should know that all Muslims want to die as a martyr, that is the highest achievement,” said Zacky Roby Cahyadi, a member of the Indonesian Muslims Youth Movement (GPI), a radical group based in Jakarta.
Property-Casualty Slides Into A Down Cycle
Hartford Courant – Mar 11, 2008
Various commercial lines of insurance can be affected, too. Workers’ compensation insurance, for instance, is based on the size of an employer’s payroll, so layoffs, pay cuts and job freezes eat away at premium volume. Even so, analysts believe that some insurers, such as Connecticut’s home-grown companies, are taking sensible steps to remain prosperous. These steps include adding or overhauling products, expanding distribution by adding agents and increasing marketing efforts. The cyclical downturn isn’t raising the specter of major layoffs at Hartford’s property-casualty insurers. In fact, The Hartford said that it expects “modest employment growth” in Connecticut this year. About 13,000 of the company’s 31,000 employees are in the state.
STLtoday – News – Special Reports
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Mar 11, 2008
Bush and others have floated plans to allow more such workers to be in the United States legally, prompting a wide-ranging debate about the impact foreign workers are having on the job market, and on consumers. Critics say employers are taking advantage of both legal and illegal foreign labor because they don’t want to pay enough to attractive native workers. "Our own home-grown labor is in such terrible straits right now that it’s callous to bring foreign workers into their job market. This directly attacks the poorest of the working poor," said Roy Beck of Numbers USA, a Washington-based group that advocates stringent immigration controls. Employers who use low-skilled, low-wage workers counter that labor shortages demand expanded access to foreign labor. Without that, they say, their businesses would suffer significantly – or go under. "You can’t just create human beings by paying more," said John Gay, co-chairman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a group that spans several industries, from landscaping and plumbing to hotels and restaurants, and advocates expanded access to foreign workers – including the legalization of illegal workers already in the United States.
Another comback on the Sly
Sunday Herald – Mar 11, 2008
These days, writes Alan Morrison, what most people think of as “independent” cinema – Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Margot At The Wedding – only comes to a cinema near you thanks to a studio-assisted, multi-million dollar marketing budget that could finance the entire Scottish film industry for a decade. So it’s encouraging and downright entertaining to see Gamerz, a true independent by any definition, share space in local multiplexes with Oscar contenders and effects-heavy blockbusters. That our home-grown talent doesn’t embarrass itself in such stellar company is a wee cause for celebration in itself. Written and directed by Glasgow-born Robbie Fraser, the film combines nerdy charm, playground humour and technical polish in a way that should make Hollywood executives choke on their stale slices of American Pie. University student Ralph (Ross Finbow) is more interested in Dungeons and Dragons role-playing than his science course, particularly when he meets goth beauty and elf wannabe Marlyn (Danielle Stewart). But when housing scheme bully Lennie (James Young), a young man who would rather have an Asbo than an O-Grade, elbows into the action, Ralph risks losing the girl and his game-keeper status. Gamerz is like Lord Of The Rings remade for Chewin’ The Fat, with recognisable Glasgow locations and a supporting cast of bams, neds and fannies.
Sunday Herald: Life: People, Lifestyles & Living Today
Sunday Herald – Mar 11, 2008
Not so the larder of Roz Mackenzie. Her immaculate fridge contains two kinds of fruit juice, several varieties of cheese, sliced ham from the deli counter, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, leeks, eggs, cream, milk, fillet steak, steak mince, a pack of puff pastry, chicken breasts and various condiments. Elsewhere there are potatoes, carrots and frozen peas. There are fresh rolls every day with bread every other day.
Local dead include a mix of races, backgrounds and home towns.
Newsday – Mar 11, 2008
“I was expecting Jose to come home, so I felt bewildered at first. It took a long time to accept the reality of it. Military enlistment — and sacrifice — span all racial, ethnic, educational, income and demographic boundaries. Francis Obaji, 21, of Queens Village, the son of Nigerian immigrants, was studying microbiology at the College of Staten Island when, inspired by patriotism after Sept… In Vietnam, the figure declined to 7 percent, and it is now 5 percent in the Iraq conflict. Meanwhile, California and Texas have seen their share of the war dead increase. California’s share has grown from 6 percent in World War II to 10 percent in Vietnam and 11 percent in the Iraq war, the most of any state. Texas’ share has grown from 5 percent to 9 percent. The change mirrors the overall population growth of California and Texas over the past 60 years. Wilfredo Urbina, 29, of Baldwin, was killed when a bomb exploded near his Humvee in Baghdad two years ago.