CitizenSugar -- Breaking News, Together.

Front Page: US Unemployment Reaches Grim High at 6.5%

LibertySugar — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0800

The US unemployment reached a 14-year high of 6.5 percent today. About 240,000 nonfarm jobs were lost in October alone. So far this year 1.2 million US jobs have been lost.— Bloomberg
The still being recounted Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and Senator Norm Coleman came within a margin of 236 votes at the end of Thursday. — Minneapolis Star Tribune

Georgia's claims that it acted in defense against Russian aggression last summer are being called into question. — New York Times
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi started "suntan-gate" yesterday when he called Barack Obama "young, handsome, and tanned." When asked if the comment might have been misunderstood as undiplomatic or even racist, the Prime Minister told his opponents to get a sense of humor.— BBC News

Berlusconi Promises To Make Italy Less Like Africa?

LibertySugar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:01:01 -0700

This week Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his plans to outlaw graffiti. The Prime Minister hopes to take well-precedented steps toward forbidding citizens to write on public buildings without permission. The new law would make defacing historical monuments punishable by €30,000 ($38, 871), as well as 40 days in prison.

Berlusconi says he wants to make graffiti punishable by fines or prison time "because in some of our cities, it looks like we’re in Africa rather than Europe." Considering Italy has spent years dealing with a massive trash problem that's caused a toxic stench and piles of refuge in Naples, maybe the graffiti makes Italy look like . . . Italy.

In addition to cleaning unwanted art off the street, yesterday the Italian government faced tens of thousands of school workers who marched through Rome to protest school reforms. In Florence, 100 students stopped trains by occupying the tracks. One high school student said, "We are so many people, and if we can't change anything then it means this is a form of dictatorship." A dictatorship that cleans up graffiti!

Source

Briefing Book! Bush and Berlusconi are BFFs

LibertySugar — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:30:07 -0700

Italy: Friends forever? Italian PM Berlusconi falls over himself and his podium to praise President Bush. Watch video. — newsblog
Palin: Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation? Palin's hometown paper writes a strongly worded editorial. — Donklephant
Economy: Bankers seeking support from a floating church? London bankers attend short lunchtime services on St. Peter's barge. —SavvySugar
McCain: Whose fault? McCain says if he brings up Ayers at Debate, it's Obama's fault. — Talking Points Memo
Michelle Obama: Michelle's great-great-grandfather worked on a plantation now owned by Anderson Cooper's cousin? While Barack Obama does not have slave roots, Michelle would be first First Lady who does. — Jezebel

Source

The Way We Became the G-8 Bunch: The Summit Episode

CitizenSugar — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:00:33 -0700

The G-8 Summit gets underway in Hakkaido, Japan today; a three-day meeting of the leaders of the eight countries invited, plus a representative of the European Union.
Grown from the concept of a forum of the major industrialized democracies after the 1973 oil crisis, more have been invited until 1997 when the last member, Russia, was invited at the initiative of then US President Bill Clinton.

The guest list is at the edge of controversy this year, as major climate issues are at hand, and two of the worst polluters (China and India) aren't invited. Here's who is (top to bottom, left to right):

Marcia Brady: United Kingdom, Gordon Brown
Jan Brady: United States, George W Bush
Cindy Brady: Germany, Angela Merkel
Carol Brady: Canada, Stephen Harper
Ann B. Davis as Alice: European Union, Jose Manuel Barroso
Mike Brady: Japan, Yasuo Fukada
Greg Brady (Johnny Bravo): France Nicolas Sarkozy
Peter Brady: Russia, Dmitry Medvedev
Bobby Brady: Italy, Silvio Berlusconi

What's going to happen in this very special episode of the G-8 bunch? Well, no one's going to find a Tiki idol or Vincent Price in a cave, but some other important stuff instead. To find out,

Front Page: Plane Crash, Bombings, Berlusconi, Airline Merger

CitizenSugar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:53:56 -0700

Plane Crash: Moments ago a DC-9 plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in the eastern Congo town of Goma. CNN is reporting at this moment, 78 have died in the crash.
Bombings: More than 50 people have been killed in car bomb explosions in two Iraqi cities. At least 40 people were left dead and another 70 were injured in a blast outside a restaurant in Baquba, north of Baghdad. Baquba is the capital of the Diyala province. It has been an insurgent stronghold, where militants linked to al-Qaeda are said to have regrouped after being driven away from Baghdad. Shortly after the bombing in Baquba, police said a bomb in the city of Ramadi had killed an additional 13 people.

Berlusconi: As we reported yesterday, Silvio Berlusconi and his center-right alliance have returned to power after two years in opposition. For the first time since World War II, Italy’s parliament will not have any communist representatives in part because of the disappearing support for the communist-green Rainbow Left alliance. The failure of many small parties like this to win even a single seat leads to a sharp reduction in the number of parliamentary groups and a greater possibility of stable government.
Airline Merger: Rival airlines Delta and Northwest have agreed to a merger, creating the world's biggest air carrier. The $5 billion deal ends in a new airline to be called Delta, which will have annual revenue of more than $35 billion and employ about 75,000 people. The new CEO says, "merging Delta and Northwest is the most effective way to offset higher fuel prices and improve efficiencies, increase international presence and fund long-term investment in the business."