 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Pirates target
tropical tourist hot spot
March 2010
By F. Brinley Bruton
VICTORIA, Seychelles – With mouths shut and eyes
downcast, a group of Somali men and boys sat around a table
in the police station in Victoria, the Seychelles’ capital
city on the island of Mahé.
A police officer un-cuffed the 11 prisoners, some of
whom were barefoot, and left the room as their court-appointed
lawyer explained that they faced seven years to life
in prison on charges of piracy and terrorism.
"Make no mistake, you are facing some very, very, very serious charges," defense
lawyer Anthony Juliette said through an interpreter flown in from Kenya.
It isn’t every day I find myself in a room full of alleged pirates. But
that is where I was recently in the Seychelles, an archipelago made of 115 tropical
islands in the Indian Ocean, about 900 miles off the east coast of Africa.
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/10/2223387.aspx#comments
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. stimulus deal buoys U.K. factory’s workers
October 2010
By F. Brinley Bruton
COVENTRY, U.K. -- Shots from the photo-op show the
president standing in front of trucks with “Navistar” emblazoned
on the front and side, a publicity coup for the major
American commercial truck and bus manufacturer.
But why are these photos being shown in Coventry,
Britain’s down-at-heel equivalent of Detroit?
The answer lies in the flat-fronted truck looming
behind the president: It wasn’t made in Illinois,
site of Navistar’s headquarters, or Indiana,
where the photos were taken; the vehicle was made
at a factory in Coventry by Modec, a small British
producer of battery-powered trucks.
Photographs of President Barack Obama run on a constant
loop in the foyer of a factory here, roughly 100
miles northwest of London.
Shots from the photo-op show the president standing
in front of trucks with “Navistar” emblazoned
on the front and side, a publicity coup for the major
American commercial truck and bus manufacturer.
But why are these photos being shown in Coventry,
Britain’s down-at-heel equivalent of Detroit?
The answer lies in the flat-fronted truck looming
behind the president: It wasn’t made in Illinois,
site of Navistar’s headquarters, or Indiana,
where the photos were taken; the vehicle was made
at a factory in Coventry by Modec, a small British
producer of battery-powered trucks.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33495737
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Global downturn dashes retirees’ dreams
June 2009
By F. Brinley Bruton
The plight of British retirees in Spain underscores
the global nature of the economic contagion, with
expatriates in the EU squeezed between fluctuating
currencies and the collapse of housing markets.
SAN MIGUEL DE SALINAS, Spain - Sunlight was the main
reason Gill Burden left Britain to retire in Spain.
“I always intended to come here because of the weather,” the 68-year-old
says in her house in San Miguel de Salinas, a town on the southeastern coast. “I
like being able to get up in the morning and the sun is shining, and to go
out and not have to wear a coat.”
So about three years ago Burden and her partner of
ten years, Michael Trump, 73, packed their belongings,
sold their homes in Bristol, England, and moved to
Spain’s Costa Blanca in search of a comfortable
but affordable retirement.
Burden’s own love of sun is obvious - her
skin is tanned dark brown, something she tends to
accentuate by wearing clothes the color of ripe lemons.
That the two former members of the Royal Navy are
house-proud is also clear - their orderly home
is full of mementos from their travels, such as a
Turkish prayer rug and old snapshots of them with
friends. Carefully tended trees and flowers sprout
and wind up the walls of their tiled garden.
What is not obvious from Burden’s sunny exterior
and Trump’s toothy smile is how the global
economic meltdown has conspired with issues related
to growing old, pushing the couple to the financial
tipping point.
“I have now gotten to the position where I don’t make plans,” Burden
says. “I never know what’s around the
corner - I just live from day to day.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31441602/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-year-old protester: ‘Death of Capitalism’
April 2010
By F. Brinley Bruton
LONDON – Thousands of protesters from disparate walks of life danced and chanted in downtown London on Wednesday ahead of the G-20 meeting of world leaders.
Some came dressed as "zombie" bankers, while others donned crazy wigs and platform shoes. Many just wore jeans and t-shirts. A few even wore suits.
Dozens got bloodied scuffling
with police, and more than a few drank beer out of
tall cans. Smiling through the skull painted on his
face, Lucien Windridge said he was protesting because
he believed regular people should have more of a
voice in the global financial system.
"If people don’t protest, if people don’t have a voice, it means that they are complicit with corruption," the 50-year-old said at the start of one major protest in the heart of London’s ancient financial capital, The City.
"People must be able to express their anger at the system that has let them down," he said, standing next to his wife, son and two daughters.
Windridge was diplomatic, but his daughter Aeyla was less so. What did the 12-year-old want? "The death of capitalism," she said
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31441602/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One victim of Mexico’s escalating violence
March 2009
By F. Brinley Bruton
‘My wife wasn’t afraid,’ husband
says after her death in drug-related crime
Getting the 2009 Dodge in which Jose Molinar's wife
was shot dead back into Texas from Mexico quickly
grew complicated.
"The inspectors didn’t want to get near it because the way it was
with all the blood and everything," said the 48-year-old warehouse supervisor
from El Paso. "They were going to put one of those dogs on it to smell,
but the dog didn’t want to go near it either."
The car, its windshield splashed with bullet holes,
drew plenty of attention as it crossed into the United
States about two weeks ago.
"People were looking at it on the bridge and it caused a fender bender," said
Molinar, who moved the car into the United States in order to release it to
his insurance company. "I think everybody who saw it firsthand thought,
'Here’s a vehicle that was shot at in Juarez, here it is right in front
of me.'"
Molinar’s wife of 22 years, Marisela Granados
de Molinar, died on Dec. 3, 2008, in Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, when assassins pumped more than 80 rounds
into her car.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29530280/from/ET
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mexico under siege amid war on drug cartels
March 2009
By F. Brinley Bruton
If you asked Americans what countries posed a danger to the United States, most would probably point to an emboldened Iran, the militant havens of Afghanistan and Pakistan, or resurgent China and Russia.
But there is a growing fear in
security circles that a nation at America’s doorstep may descend swiftly into chaos and prove an immediate threat. That country is Mexico, which is locked in an increasingly violent struggle with drug cartels.
"In terms of worst-case scenarios … two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico," says a major study by the United States Joint Forces Command that came out at the end of 2008.
The military planners go on to
say that Mexico’s "government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels
."
An increasing number of Mexicans have been forced to live with the daily effects of murder, kidnapping and general lawlessness, but the violence is also spilling across the 2,000-mile border into the United States, which is the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs as well as a major source of weapons used by the gangs that traffic them.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29404699/from/ET
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Patience,
persistence pay off with visit to Syria
October 2008
By F. Brinley Bruton
Acquiring visa proves difficult, but seeing Damascus
is well worth the wait
For years I’ve wanted to visit Syria and its capital,
Damascus, which is thought to be the world’s oldest,
continuously occupied city.
I’d heard about Damascus souks - or markets -
where buyers and sellers bustle beneath bullet-hole
speckled roofs, the remnants of a nationalist rebellion
about 80 years ago.
Visitors rave about the Umayyad Mosque, one of the most
important religious sites in Islam. Then there’s
the cuisine, considered by many to be the best in the
region.
Apparently, though, Syria didn’t want me.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26759300/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shaegh Fazil still thinks about the time when learning could trigger
a beating. In those days, she always wore house-cleaning clothes under
her burqa to ensure that the Taliban would never find out that she
was a student at a secret school. "I was always so afraid,"
she said. We were speaking in the grounds of Herat University in western
Afghanistan. Sunlight shone blue through the upturned burqa framing
her face. |
| |
|
|
“Qat destroys,” says Mona Al Mahakty, of
Yemen’s Anti-Qat Soceity. “It worsens all of our problems.”
The Anti-Qat Society is an advocacy group opposed to the unchecked
use of qat, a plant whose leaves, when chewed, exert a mild, and possibly
addictive, stimulant effect.
Qat chewing is an accepted and widely practiced habit in Yemen and
yet its social and economic costs have never been properly calculated.
But it is unlikely that the impact is small.
|
| |
|
|
|
"Happy, happy, happy birth- day . . . right wing!" A low laugh and
an explanation follow the jingle being broadcast across the United
States: today is the birthday of Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist
at the centre of a corruption scandal engulfing some of the nation's
top Republicans.
|
|
|
|
|
The return of the BBC
December 2005
Arabies Trends
F. Brinley Bruton
Can London win hearts, minds and market share with its
Arabic-language network? |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Hosam El Sokkari faces a monumental task. As the man
in charge of the BBC's current Arabic-language offerings, he is set
to blaze the trail for what is being called the "biggest transformation"
at the BBC World Service in 70 years.
The BBC set the media world abuzz recently when it announced the launch
of an Arabic-languate television channel that will take on the likes
of Qatar's Al Jazeera, the region's dominant TV news presence, and
the runner-up, Saudi-backed Al Arabiya.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Meet the candidate
October 2005
Arabies Trends
F. Brinley Bruton
The hopes and fears of Afghanistan are embodied in Malalai
Joya, a young woman with great hopes and even greater fears |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Afghanistan's Malalai Joya is running for political
office and also, much of the time, running scared. Joya, 26, is a
candidate for parliament in Farah, a province on the border with Iran,
and she speaks constantly about the lack of security in her country.
"The people of Afghanistan do not feel secure," she said
just days after the official start of the campaign season on August
17th. The results of the landmark parliamentary and provincial elections
on September 18th are expected to be announced later this month. "Women
to not have rights. My enemies attacked my house; they have threatened
me several times. I have to wear a burqa everywhere I go. My people
live in danger." |
|
|
|
|
|
September 19, 2005
New Statesman
F. Brinley Bruton
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| August temperatures in Farah Province, on the border
with Iran, can hit 50º C, beating residents into a submissive slouch.
But on a Friday in Farah’s capital, the offices of Malalai Joya,
who is running for parliament, crackle with life. All activity focuses
on a woman who is slumped in a chair, her head bowed and the side
of her face swollen. Her mouth hangs slack and her tongue worries
at her crooked teeth. |
| |
Business
& Investigative |
|
|
|
| |
| Since taking power a year ago, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
may have proven himself adept at raising Iran’s influence in
the Arab world, but any new-found political clout is being eroded
by the country’s dismal economic performance. Despite oil –
Iran’s main earner – hitting record highs, foreign investors
are steering well clear and, perhaps most worryingly, even the country’s
own elite is going overseas to park its wealth. |
| |
|
|
| |
| Despite its huge gas and oil wealth, Iran’s business
elite finds itself increasingly short of Western business partners.
Ali Ansari, author of Confronting Iran who is on the modern history
faculty at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, encapsulates
the problems facing Iran’s merchant class: “There is the
oil money but there is no business being done with foreign partners
these days because a lot of foreign partners are actually quite shy
of Iran.” |
| |
|
|
| |
| Remember the stereotype? A fabulously wealthy Arab
washes into London on a tsunami of oil money, easy pickings for savvy
private bankers and estate agents. The sheikh, sultan or emir then
hands over billions to his advisor, who invests the money in a City
friend’s “sure thing” and proceeds to the golf club.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Chelsea Flower Show-fueling
UK's gardening frenzy?
May 24, 2004
Reuters
F. Brinley Bruton
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Britain's gardening business is in full-bloom. Nothing illustrates
the point better than the Chelsea Flower Show, an extravagant yearly
marriage held between green-thumbed aristocracy and mass consumerism.
Tens of thousands, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth, will crowd
exhibits showcasing both trendsetting and traditional horticultural
happenings this week.
|
| My Word |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
When Tragedy strikes
11 December 2005
Liberty
F. Brinley Bruton
Overcoming the barriers of distance in times of need
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Ur the first to get thru to my cell. Great to
hear from u. Wendy and the girls are ok. We are in san antonio
for few days. After that, don’t know. Gotta run. Love,
mac.” This was from my brother, Mac. He, his wife, two
daughters and their yellow lab used to live in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Now they inhabit a tiny apartment in Houston, where
my oldest niece goes to school in a borrowed uniform. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Woman in Afghanistan
October 2005
Liberty
F. brinley Bruton
An American woman travels solo to one of the most difficult
areas of the world only to find warmth and kindness like no
place else
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Going to the doctor in Kabul can be an ordeal to match
the disease. My high fever transported the city's legendary traffic
to the realm of the surreal. Horns blared and armored personnel carriers
rumbled dangerously close to my van. Thin children with flaky skin,
men missing limbs and women in ragged burqas tap-tap-tapped their
fingers on the window. |
|
|
