AFP/nowlebanon: France regrets postponement of European Mideast peace bid

France "regrets" postponement of European Mideast peace bid
April 13, 2011
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=261302#ixzz1JPcSzbUg

France said Wednesday it regretted the postponement of a Middle East Quartet
meeting due in Berlin this week aimed at breaking the peace process
deadlock.

Diplomats at the United Nations said Tuesday that the meeting planned for
Friday was put off because the United States was blocking a European bid to
break the stalemate.

"We regret the postponement of the Quartet meeting set to be held in Berlin
on April 15," French foreign ministry spokesperson Bernard Valero told
journalists.

"We call on the Quartet to adopt as soon as possible a statement detailing
final status issues - notably borders and security - so that direct talks
between Israelis and Palestinians can resume on this basis," he said.

Top officials from the Quartet - the United States, European Union, Russia
and the UN - had already had one meeting in March pushed back.

Britain, France and Germany had wanted to use the Berlin Quartet meeting
this week to propose the outline of a final settlement for the
Israel-Palestinian conflict.

They have been pressing for a Quartet statement, setting out the framework
for a deal such as borders and a land swap, which they hoped would revive
direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told AFP that Britain,
France and Germany "have been working at the highest level for the
acceptance of these parameters to pave the way for the resumption of direct
talks.

"It appears that Washington is not yet ready to accept this outline."

Mansour said that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will go to France to
meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy early next week.

The United States set a target date of September this year for an accord on
setting up an independent Palestinian state.

Direct Israel-Palestinian talks ended in late September when Israel refused
to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories.
Israel has insisted that all issues, including the settlements, should be
hammered out in direct talks.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

This one really hits where it hurts

What is the epidemic nobody talks about? Worse than AIDS. More of a threat than swine flu or global warming. Yet nobody talks about it?  What is responsible for the precipitious fall in birthrates? Women's lib? Pollution? Permissive Morals? Guess again. Read more about the epidemic nobody talks about.

 

Athlete defends funding London 2012 training with proceeds from his brothel

Athlete defends funding London 2012 training with proceeds from his brothel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oct/07/brothel-logan-campbell-london-2012

• Taekwondo athlete started brothel to finance his Olympic bid
• New Zealand Olympic Committee threatening legal action

• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 October 2009 11.33 BST

 

A New Zealand athlete has defended running a brothel to finance his participation in the London 2012 Olympics. Photograph: John Van Hasselt/Corbis

The New Zealand Olympic Committee has threatened to sue a local taekwondo athlete who plans to finance his participation in the 2012 London Games with the proceeds from a brothel.

Logan Campbell, whose participation in the Beijing Olympics last year cost him close to £70,000, most of which came from his parents, opened a brothel with a friend in Auckland earlier this year.

Campbell, 23, went public with the scheme in July and said he hoped to raise £140,000 to alleviate any financial burden on his parents and to have more time to concentrate on training. After remaining silent on the issue for three months, the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) have written to Campbell demanding he cease linking the Olympics to his business or face legal action.

New Zealand's TV3 channel quoted the letter, signed by NZOC secretary-general Barry Maister, as saying: "Based on the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, we would place your actions as totally inconsistent.

"Your open solicitation of 'clients' for your 'business' while using the Olympic or Olympian connection must cease immediately, or the NZOC will be forced to consider taking legal action against you."

Campbell, who finished outside the medals in the featherweight division at Beijing, defended his business and fundraising efforts. Owning and running brothels is legal in New Zealand, where laws governing prostitution are relatively liberal by world standards.

"At the end of the day, I feel like I'm not exploiting anyone because no one has to be here, we are not forcing anyone to be here. They are here of their own free will," he told the network. Campbell was now threatening legal action of his own, TV3 added.

Report: 4 year pregnancy

General News of Sunday, 1 February 2009

Woman Delivers After Four-Year Pregnancy
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=157080
A woman who allegedly conceived for four years has finally delivered a bouncing baby boy at Akyem Takyiman in the eastern region.

A disappointed couple, Dominic Adu, 29 and Grace Arthur 21, all from Akyem Takyiman who had married for five years had to divorce upon pressures from their parents to bring forth children.

The couple made steps by consulting local herbalists for solution for several months but could not get any good result. They further diverted to the Akwatia Government Hospital for examination, when they suspected the wife missed her period for four months.

The Laboratory test and scanning however proved negative. Mr. Adu was frustrated and had to abandon the wife and attempted to seek for a new partner, who could bring forth children for him.

Later, the aunt of Grace Arthur directed the couple to see one Dr. Isaiah K. Boateng of Isaboaco Herbal Clinic at Kade for medical attention who confirm that Ms. Arthur was actually pregnant for almost four years but the pregnancy was affected by a strange disease.

At this juncture the husband was said to have left the wife to her fate and even went to the extend of insinuating the Herbal Doctor who started given the wife some medication to prove her woman hood.

Dr. Isaiah with his experience counseled the couple and advised them to stick to their medication.

After some time, Ms. Arthur delivered a bouncing baby boy. The couple has now come together as man and wife and was seen in a happy mood when our reporter met them at the Clinic in Kade when they had gone to thank Dr. Isaiah.

****

Disclaimer: No responsibility is assumed for the physiological accuracy of the report or the veracity of the facts. It is not known if actual babies or mothers were hurt in preparing the above report.

 

 

A little Portuguese

Sonnets from the Portuguese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

 

I	I thought once how Theocritus had sung
II	But only three in all God's universe
III	Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
IV	Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor
V	I lift my heavy heart up solemnly
VI	Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
VII	The face of all the world is changed, I think
VIII	What can I give thee back, O liberal
IX	Can it be right to give what I can give?
X	Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
XI	And therefore if to love can be desert
XII	Indeed this very love which is my boast
XIII	And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
XIV	If thou must love me, let it be for nought
XV	Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
XVI	And yet, because thou overcomest so
XVII	My poet thou canst touch on all the notes
XVIII	I never gave a lock of hair away
XIX	The soul's Rialto hath its merchandize
XX	Beloved, my beloved, when I think
XXI	Say over again, and yet once over again
XXII	When our two souls stand up erect and strong
XXIII	Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead
XXIV	Let the world's sharpness like a clasping knife
XXV	A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne
XXVI	I lived with visions for my company
XXVII	My own Beloved, who hast lifted me
XXVIII	My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
XXIX	I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud
XXX	I see thine image through my tears to-night
XXXI	Thou comest! all is said without a word
XXXII	The first time that the sun rose on thine oath
XXXIII	Yes, call me by my pet-name! let me hear
XXXIV	With the same heart, I said, I'll answer thee
XXXV	If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
XXXVI	When we met first and loved, I did not build
XXXVII	Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make
XXXVIII	First time he kissed me, he but only kissed
XXXIX	Because thou hast the power and own'st the grace
XL	Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!
XLI	I thank all who have loved me in their hearts
XLII	My future will not copy fair my past
XLIII	How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
XLIV	Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowe

Some of my favorite poems

From my favorite poet... (sometimes)  

 

http://lovepoems.yu-hu.com/cummings/ee_cummings_poems.shtml

 

)when what hugs stopping earth than silent is

all ignorance toboggans into know

All in green went my love riding

along the brittle treacherous bright streets

because i love you)last night

because it's

being to timelessness as it's to time,

i am so glad and very

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

i go to this window

i have found what you are like

i like my body when it is with your

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

if everything happens that can't be done

If I have made, my lady, intricate

if I believe

if i love You

if strangers meet

in spite of everything

it is at moments after i have dreamed

it may not always be so;and i say

if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have

lily has a rose

love is a place

love is the every only god

Marianne Moore

may my heart

my father moved through dooms of love

my love

my love is building a building

my sweet old etc

nothing false and possible is love

Of Nicolette

one's not half two. It's two are halves of one:

since feeling is first

somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond

speaking of love(of

supposing i dreamed this)

Thy fingers make early flowers

true lovers in each happening of their hearts

unto thee i

when faces called flowers float out of the ground

Where's Madge then,

who knows if the moon's

yes is a pleasant country:

you being in love

you said Is

you shall above all things be glad and young

And some analysis:

http://lovepoems.yu-hu.com/cummings/reading_ee_cummings.shtml

 

Sex, Law and the City: Right to know who visits a ho

Now this is a pity: Judge Orders Lid On Phone Records. The phone records in question are from a ho house in Washington DC. The public has a right to know who was getting hisself some on the side, doesn't it? And even if we don't have the right, at least we have the desire, right?

 

It says:

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the woman accused of being the D.C. madam, can't release any more phone records that would reveal patrons of her Washington escort service, a federal judge said yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler placed a temporary restraining order on Palfrey and her civil attorney, prohibiting them from sharing additional phone records with news organizations or the public.

Palfrey has said that she regretted any embarrassment felt by her former customers but that she was letting a news organization mine her records so she could find potential defense witnesses and fight government charges that she ran an illegal prostitution ring. Palfrey said her escorts provided legal massages and fantasies.

Right. A woman is innocent until proven guilty.....

ABC News reporters' calls to possible customers last month ultimately led Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias to resign after he acknowledged using Palfrey's escort service. Tobias said he got a massage, not sex.

A positive development. Anyone who went to that sort of outfit and only got a massage is too much of a sucker to work for the government. No wonder US foreign policy looks the way it does. Putin would never settle for just a massage, and if he did, he wouldn't be dumb enough to admit it.

 

S. Sharer