2006

All the US reconstruction funding for Iraq, all $18 billion, has now been spent or committed and there will be no more. What sticks out, though, in the light of the great pay-for-play journalism affair, is this: “It is easy for the Americans to say, ‘We are doing reconstruction in Iraq,’ and we hear that.…

The ever-helpful Sharjah Airport website reports that old friends British Gulf International’s flight BGK1222 from Bagram AFB is delayed, expected in at 1630. The Irbis flight from Riyan is also running late, but the corresponding BGK1221 to Bagram got off all right, as did another to a destination given as “unknown”. Would passengers for the…

Some months ago, we took note of a curious twist in the scandals surrounding Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Texan politico Tom DeLay. You may recall that they were revealed to have been involved in exporting Russian night-sights to a group of West Bank settlers, and to have received cash and hospitality from a mysterious…

Somebody chose this winter to release a joke newswire story regarding the State of Narnia’s decision to walk out of WTO talks in Hong Kong into the wild. The financial news agency AFX was apparently Patient Zero in the outbreak, which spread to other financial news sites including Forbes. Everyone and his dog has blogged…