Could Lula come back?

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:59 AM - 0 Comments

Brazil’s outgoing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hinted that he might run for office again, in four years’ time, once his handpicked successor nears the end of her own presidential term. His comments, made to a Brazilian TV channel, come less than two months after the election of the country’s new president Dilma Rousseff, and might overshadow her debut in the top job. Rousseff, who’s known as a tough administrator and shrewd technocrat but has no previous experience in an elected office, faces a difficult task in trying to match her predecessor’s stellar personal approval ratings, which hover around 87 per cent.

Financial Times

Telegraph

Study calls for better screening for HIV

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:48 AM - 1 Comment

U.S. researchers say that expanding screening for the AIDS virus could prevent more than 80,000 infections over the next 20 years, if all Americans were screened at least once, and those at highest risk were screened once a year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends testing everyone at least once for HIV, which causes AIDS, but little or no funding has gone towards this, Reuters reports. According to projections from researchers at Yale and Stanford Universities, approximately 1.23 million new HIV infections occur over 20 years, and 74 per cent of them are among high-risk people.

Reuters

Dairy might protect against diabetes: study

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:45 AM - 0 Comments

According to researchers, a natural substance in dairy products seems to protect against diabetes, the BBC reports. In a study of over 3,700 people, they found that higher levels of trans-palmitoleic acid—which is in milk, cheese, and other dairy products but can’t be made by the body—was linked with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. People with the highest levels saw their risk cut by 60 per cent, which was described as “striking” by lead author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian. “This represents an almost three-fold difference in risk of developing diabetes among individuals with the highest blood levels of this fatty acid,” he said.

BBC News

All about the Benjamins

By Julia Belluz - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 2 Comments

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

It could be the most costly printing error in U.S. history: over US$100 billion worth of redesigned $100 bills are currently being quarantined and may be destroyed because government printers failed to churn out usable currency. New high-tech notes, which were scheduled for release in February 2011, were designed with advanced security features, including a 3-D security strip to stave off counterfeiters. But the complex production process they require rendered a crease in an unknown number of the new bills, leaving a blank portion that is revealed when the bill is tugged on both ends.

The source of the printing problem is unknown, but one official familiar with the situation told CNBC that “the frustration level is off the charts.” These new $100 bills were to be the first to carry Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s signature. Now, in order to prevent a $100 bill shortage, the Federal Reserve has ordered more of the low-tech variety, which features Bush-era treasury secretary Hank Paulson’s signature.

The questionable cash, which represents more than 10 per cent of the entire supply of American currency in the world, will be held in vaults at Fort Worth in Texas and in Washington until the government figures out how to sort the bad bills from the properly printed ones.

And Earl belched the opening of Away in a Manger

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 9 Comments

Getty Images; Istock; Illustration by Taylor Shute

For many families, listening to the warm, wistful stories of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe Christmas has become a holiday tradition. But what if Dave and Morley’s family was a little more like our own?

None of them had seen Uncle Earl since Christmas dinner, 2004. He’d arrived unexpectedly, just as Morley was serving the apple pie. “Don’t make a fuss,” he’d said, then tucked a napkin into the collar of his T-shirt. Morley dutifully made up a plate for Earl, the serving spoon hitting hard against the china. Earl spent the rest of the evening flirting ferociously with Aunt Janice and rubbing her thigh. Few would have thought this impolite had Janice not been married to Uncle Walt, who was sitting right there.

Six years it had been since anyone had seen Earl. But when the doorbell rang, Morley froze. She knew in an instant. They all knew. Earl. A doorbell has never been touched so deep into the Christmas dinner hour by anyone other than a black sheep.

Continue…

Top 20 books of 2010

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

NON-FICTION

Tiger John Vaillant
A chilling page turner—complete with an astonishing denouement—about a Siberian tiger’s revenge and the dangerous subsequent hunt for the man-killer.

Future Babble Dan Gardner
A witty, lively debunking of wrong-headed predictions about the future by “experts”—and why we frequently fail to notice their spectacularly dumb mistakes.

Even Silence Has an End Ingrid Betancourt
The kidnapped Colombian politician’s gripping account of years in jungle captivity features squabbling hostages, brutish deprivation and, somehow, hope.

The Truth Shows Up Harvey Cashore
A great investigative reporter’s account of his 15-year effort to bring the Airbus affair to light, which damaged not just Brian Mulroney but the journalist himself.

Continue…

Top 10 movies of 2010

By Brian D. Johnson - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 9 Comments

The Fighter; The Social Network | Alliance Films/ Sony Pictures Digital Inc.

1. Black Swan
Outlandish and electrifying, Darren Aronofsky’s ballet melodrama takes wild risks, leaping from high camp to horror, with a grand jeté of high tragedy. Remixing Hitchcock, Cronenberg and Polanski, the movie polarized audiences. But it surprised and exhilarated me like nothing else. Natalie Portman deserves the Oscar for her tour de force, and Mila Kunas could give Angelina Jolie lessons in vixenry.

2. The Social Network
Finally a movie captures the rhythms, the jackrabbit attention span, and the colonizing logic of Internet culture. Jesse Eisenberg is pure cold genius as the face of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Somehow writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher convert fact to fable without getting sued.

3. Winter’s Bone
Jennifer Lawrence shines in Debra Granik’s Ozark Gothic tale of an intrepid teenage girl who plunges into a hillbilly heart of darkness. With locations and characters that feel so authentic, yet mysterious, it creates its own genre: anthropological horror.

4. The King’s Speech
The Oscar pedigree of a feel-good film about royalty and disability now seems a given. But this slim tale of overcoming a stutter could have gone so horribly wrong. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are a treat in the year’s most unlikely buddy movie.

5. Toy Story 3
There is a special place in heaven reserved for sequels that are better than the originals. Very few have “3” in the title. Exciting, poignant, witty, profound—why can’t live action be this good?.

6. Hereafter
Clint Eastwood steps out of character to construct an intricate narrative mosaic that’s gorgeously shot and quietly moving. Matt Damon sees dead people; he’s so modest we believe him.

7. 127 hours
Reminding us he’s the wild man who made “Trainspotting,” Danny Boyle delivers the year’s most visceral thrill ride with the story of a hallucinating climber pinned by a boulder.

8. Never Le Me Go
Adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian novel, Mark Romanek directs vistas of exquisite desolation and perfect performances from Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield.

9. The Town
Ben Affleck proved he’s a helluva director with a down-and-dirty heist movie rich with detailed character work and emotional angst. Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Hall are superb.

10. Exit Through the Gift Shop
Banski, the clandestine king of street art, turns the camera on a crazy French videographer, and we still don’t know if this documentary is real or a hoax—or even who made it. A mind-blowing trip into the no man’s land between art and hype.

A birthday with 3,233 dogs

By Barbara Amiel - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 8:20 AM - 19 Comments

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

One of the splendid aspects of proper dog shows is that almost all categories require the dogs to be “intact.” Which is to say, boys and girls must have all their bits and pieces. It’s very fashionable to support legislation for mandatory spaying and neutering (I personally think it preferable just to spay and neuter irresponsible or vicious owners and breeders) and in some cases it might be the best thing for your dog, although I can’t imagine why apart from health reasons. If you don’t want the seasonal inconvenience of a bitch in heat, buy a parakeet.

I’m not sure if dogs know when they are intact. It seems to me they walk more proudly, and certainly for the first couple of growth years having all their hormones allows proper development. The Brussels griffon that emerged recently from the elevator in the Hyatt Regency seemed to have a certain jauntiness sizing up a passing brace of female Salukis that his balls-off counterpart would not share. But who knows? The Brussels griffon with his beard and those wide black expressive eyes has always reminded me of a very randy professor I had at the University of Toronto, and that may cloud my judgment.

Continue…

Harper's surprising abortion vote

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 3:56 PM - 189 Comments

There’s a TV monitor in the foyer outside the House of Commons so reporters waiting to scrum exiting MPs can watch the proceedings while we wait. The other day (Dec. 15, I see now) I noticed my colleague Elizabeth Thompson from iPolitics.ca paying close attention to a roll-call vote and thought no more of it until today.

Turns out the vote was about abortion, sort of, and what was worth noting was that Stephen Harper was voting against one of his own MPs. I’m just catching up to this story, which others have covered more carefully. Perhaps you are too, so here it is. Continue…

2010: The Year in Pictures

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 2:55 PM - 2 Comments

CLICK HERE FOR MORE GALLERIES

See you next year

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 2:26 PM - 47 Comments

With Parliament now quiet and our MPs duly scattered to their ridings, this blog is embarking on a short vacation. Regular programming will return January 3.

On that note, a quick, but heartfelt, note of thanks to all who visited, contributed, complimented and criticized these last 12 months. This was a reasonably successful annum by various objective measures—a new high mark for readership, a National Magazine Award nomination for The Commons and a share of a Canadian Online Publishing Award. Regardless of such achievements, I had fun. And, at the very least, I hope it was anything but boring for readers, fan, critics and onlookers alike.

The next two weeks will be a celebration of the last year—the absurd, the enlightening, the inspiring and the Tony Clement. So in between shovelling snow and sipping eggnog, check back periodically as we toast 2010. Otherwise, we’ll see you in 2011.

Morning Glory? Not for Kevin Newman.

By Kevin Newman - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 19 Comments

The film portrays morning television as an arena for public floggings, conflicting egos and insecure executives; Newman (left) thinks that’s about right | Linda Mackie/Global; Paramount Pictures; Illustration by Bradley Reinhardt

I am not sure why I was eager to see Morning Glory. Maybe it was the same thing that drives any addict to test their level of recovery—exposure to what got them hooked. In my case, I am a news junkie who once hung out perilously close to where the hot steam escapes from the pressure cooker of network TV news. Now, here I was watching what claims to be a light romantic comedy about the inside workings of Americans’ morning television. I wondered if the hunger would return.

In the film, a plucky producer played by Rachel McAdams is handed the unenviable task of rescuing Daybreak, a morning show with plummeting ratings, anchored by a hard-news curmudgeon (Harrison Ford) and a former beauty-queen co-host (Diane Keaton). The writer of Morning Glory, Aline Brosh McKenna, did her research: that combination is typecasting for morning shows. There are many insider references in the script, like the intense competition for guest bookings. Even the name of the fictional network (IBS) rings true. Irritable bowel syndrome is also, uncomfortably, a medical condition common to those working the early shift.

Continue…

Women lash out—way, way out

By Joanne Latimer - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 1 Comment

Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Casting aside the sober insert outlining possible side effects—something about itching, and irreversible darkening of the iris—I open a bottle of Latisse, an eyelash-growing drug just approved by Health Canada. According to its manufacturer, Allergan (yes, the Botox people), results can be seen in eight weeks; by week 16, lashes should be fuller, longer, darker. The cost: about $150 a month, and the patience to keep up with a regimen of nightly applications.

Vanity wins over fear and skepticism, and I dab some on my sparse lash line. No funny smell. No burning. No blindness. Is this the beginning of the end for mascara?

Cosmetic companies don’t seem too worried. “Latisse is a drug that transforms and we don’t make that claim,” says Stéphanie Binette, Canadian marketing director for L’Oréal-owned Maybelline New York, which is prepping for the 40th anniversary rebranding of Great Lash mascara, a tube of which is sold somewhere on the planet every 1.7 seconds. “Mascara is used to achieve different looks and effects. One doesn’t replace the other.”

Continue…

Spider-Man: Turn off the Show

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 11:49 AM - 7 Comments

The tryout of Julie Taymor and U2′s Spider-Man musical is, if nothing else, the first Broadway musical in a while to become part of the international cultural consciousness. You don’t hear Conan O’Brien and SNL making many jokes about Elf: The Musical. The fact that performers are getting hurt makes the story less funny than it was, but it’s not the first show to suffer special effects failures or injured performers. Some of them even happen after the tryouts. (On the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Allegro, one of  the most technically complicated productions in Broadway history, a supporting performer supposedly fell into the orchestra pit while singing.) The news that the stuntman who fell last night is in “serious condition” makes the story even less funny; I thought we’d be able to go back to laughing at the production eventually, but it may have crossed the line from “funny” to “upsetting,” particularly given Taymor’s apparent problem recognizing — or at least admitting — that something is wrong. (Update: However, as pointed out in comments, the CBS story exaggerates this problem of Taymor’s by making it seem like something she said two days ago, about “danger” and “risk,” was a direct comment on last night’s accident. It wasn’t.)

Spider-Man is yet another in a long line of examples of why it’s dangerous for Broadway shows to hold their previews in New York, opening “cold” as it’s called in theatre terminology. Traditionally, out-of-town tryouts are considered preferable: you open in another city, fix it on the road, and come to New York with the final version. The out-of-town tryout has been periodically endangered because it’s very expensive, and more recently, because the internet has made it possible for bad word of mouth to trickle in from any city. Camelot opened in Toronto at the O’Keefe Centre and was incredibly overlong, but not many people outside of Toronto knew how much work it needed. Today, many more people would know, and it would limp into New York with a ton of bad publicity — even if the show had been rewritten and improved.

But the internet hasn’t changed the world quite as much as we may think, and there’s still a big difference between bad word of mouth from out of town and bad word of mouth in New York. Shows that open cold in New York are frequently savaged — because there’s no sense of separation between the previews and the official opening. The last Stephen Sondheim/Harold Prince musical, Merrily We Roll Along, had to be revised from top to bottom during its previews (the costumes and choreography were replaced, along with the lead performer), but because it was all happening in New York, the revisions — aimed at improving the show — actually created bad publicity for the piece.

There have been shows that opened cold and managed to become hits, but it creates an extra layer of difficulty: the 1952 musical Wish You Were Here had to try out in New York because the whole set was built around an onstage swimming pool, and it became a city-wide joke that had critics ready to attack even before they saw it. That show succeeded, but it had to fight back against weeks of terrible publicity. The point of previews is to fix things, but when it’s happening in the same city as the opening, the word of mouth will emphasize that the show is in trouble. It doesn’t matter if the final version turns out better or not.

Now, Spider-Man doesn’t really get much sympathy from me, not so much because of the subject matter as because Taymor decided to co-write the book herself (something that has worked exactly once, with Chicago, which Bob Fosse co-wrote) and to hire superannuated pop songwriters instead of theatre songwriters. Also, it’s using the New York tryout to its own financial advantage: it’s selling lots of tickets for previews, so by extending the tryout, it guarantees itself an extra month of sold-out performances that critics are not allowed to review. It’s a good racket. There’s even a slight amount of positive publicity value in all these stories about the technical disasters and injuries: it focuses attention on the stuff that’s relatively easy to fix. The negative reports about the book and score are almost getting submerged, even though in the long run, the book and score are going to be much bigger problems for this thing.

Still, the fact that the show is in trouble during previews does not, in itself, mean that the show is doomed. It’s doomed because it spent so much money that it can’t make it back. That’s a different thing altogether. But the stuff that’s happening during previews is… stuff that happens during previews. It’s just that it’s happening in the biggest city in North America instead of some other town where the publicity is less vicious.

Also, about Taymor, I should add that a lot of the blame for what’s going on with this show has to rest with the producers, rather than her. (In fact, a lot of stories have heaped apparently-deserved blame on the original producer, David Garfinkle, who ran out of money; he was replaced by Michael Cohl, who kept the production afloat.) She has a reputation as a perfectionist and a megalomaniac, but there’s an element of megalomania in the very act of directing. Directors are supposed to want to do the impossible, no matter how much it costs. The producer’s job is to say “no” or to find a way for the director to do what he or she wants without killing the show’s financial prospects.

A really bad air day

By Chris Sorensen - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 4 Comments

David Loh/Reuters

It’s an exciting time to be a commercial airline, arguably less so to be a passenger. Both of the world’s biggest plane-makers, Boeing Co. and Airbus, are rolling out all-new aircraft designs that promise more capabilities and cheaper operating costs than their predecessors. But, as has recently been demonstrated in spectacular fashion, the price of building a game-changing jetliner is never-before-encountered problems.

Last month, a Qantas Airways-owned Airbus A380, a double-decker behemoth first introduced in 2007, was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore after one of its Rolls-Royce engines not only failed, but blew apart, damaging several key on-board systems. No one was hurt, but an investigation by Australian authorities highlighted the hair-raising challenges faced by the pilots as they tried to control the crippled airliner amid a cacophony of blaring alarms and flashing indicators.

Continue…

Be nice or else

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 8:58 AM - 114 Comments

In Hungary, which takes over the European Presidency on Jan. 1, the parliament has passed a media law that some in Canada would dream of: it gives a government-appointed board the mandate to seek out unbalanced news coverage and levy massive fines for those deemed to transgress.

“Media can be forced to reveal their sources, the media authority can search editorial offices, can copy reporters’ notes and mandate that publishers hand over confidential business information and levy serious fines on those that refuse,” according to one account. “Immoral” reporting, involving sex, violence or alcohol, would be policed too. Hungarian newspapers have run blank front pages in protest.  Poland’s Adam Michnik, a hero of the anti-Communist resistance and a great newspaper proprietor, is pretty angry.

The government of one-time pro-democracy darling Viktor Orban says its hands are tied: the bill was introduced as a private-members measure, so government members have no responsibility for it, although they all, surprise surprise, wound up voting for it.

So now a panel of government appointees will decide what’s fair, balanced and nice, and punish transgressors. How could this possibly go wrong?

Let me spell it out for you

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 11:08 PM - 131 Comments

It’s good of the PMO to send reporters a full transcript of Stephen Harper’s interview with a crew from TVA that included at least one accredited member of the Liberal/Bloc coalition media. The chat took place — here I am jealous of my colleagues — at Harrington Lake. The PMO went so far as to include a full translation with the transcript. None of this is a matter of routine when the PM gives an interview, so one must assume there was stuff in there the staff wanted widely read.

The prime minister addressed a lot of subjects, jumping into “I don’t want to start an election” before he was even asked. I’m struck by the bit about the hockey rink in Quebec City, because I keep looking for hints that this guy doesn’t want to spend the money, and I don’t see any. He sounds like someone who’s looking for a chance to spend it. A private-sector partner would make it easier:

RT. HON. STEPHEN HARPER: But the last time I discussed this question, this issue with the Mayor, he told me he would be looking to have Quebec City bid on the Olympic Games. And I encouraged him. Historically, that’s how Ottawa supports the development of large-scale sports facilities. There’s no federal program to fund professional sports facilities. Not now, not in previous decades. Pro sports are first and foremost the responsibility of the private sector, and I am encouraging the private sector to come up with a solution. If Ottawa did something like that, we’d have to do it across the country, and the list is long. Hamilton, Regina, Edmonton, even my home town of Calgary, everyone wants a new facility.

PAUL LAROCQUE: So to be clear, what you’re saying to Quebec City is no. Is that correct?

RT. HON. STEPHEN HARPER: I said that the solution mainly has to come from the private sector, and I’m awaiting actions to show that this project is truly feasible and that the private sector is ready to step up to the plate. Myself, I’m a big sports fan. I’d love to see NHL teams in Quebec City, Winnipeg, Hamilton, but the business community has to be ready to invest. Continue…

Recommended books I couldn't review this year

By John Geddes - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 6:59 PM - 4 Comments

One of the best things about being a writer is getting to meet other writers. They tend to be interesting company. Even better, they sometimes ask their publicists to send free copies of their new books. Of course, it’s not proper to review the books of one’s friends, although I believe this has been known to happen (as has the even more improper practice of reviewing the books of one’s enemies).

I try not to cross that line. Still, I hate to think that even a single last-minute Christmas shopper this week should lack for guidance regarding the perfect gift book merely because of my scruples over the past 12 months in refraining from praising the work of old friends, current colleagues, and valued acquaintances. So, with that disclosure, here are four books published in 2010 that you shouldn’t overlook:

The Authenticity Hoax by Andrew Potter   When this book came out last spring, reaction naturally focused on Potter’s effortlessly entertaining way with a pop-culture reference. For instance, his long list of stuff marketed as authentic—Ethiopian cuisine to Coca-Cola, ecotourism to urban lofts—was widely remarked. But what will stick with readers is the compelling way he reminds us, without ever preaching, about what’s valuable in modernity, liberalism, secularism, and even consumerism.

Every Lost Country by Steven Heighton    The action, and there’s plenty of it, straddles the high-altitude border between Nepal and China. The main plot involves Canadians who get mixed up with Tibetan refugees fleeing Chinese soldiers; a major sub-plot follows a climber trying to conquer a remote Himalayan mountain. On both of these fronts, Heighton builds suspense, and paints unforgiving landscapes, with the same deftness he showed in his celebrated Arctic novel, Afterlands.

Prudes, Perverts and Tyrants by Christina H. Tarnopolsky   By taking on the task of rehabilitating Plato’s concept of shame, Tarnopolsky approaches the intersection of private and public life from an entirely unexpected angle. “Can we have a democratic politics,” she asks, “that preserves the kind of shame that is constitutive of respect and civility while avoiding the shame that stigmatizes and isolates certain groups from the public sphere?” This isn’t light reading by any means, but there’s a bracing urgency that drives her argument.

A Man In Uniform by Kate Taylor    A spate of recent non-fiction books attest to the lasting fascination of the Dreyfus Affair. Taylor turns the saga of anti-Semitism in belle époque Paris into a sort of detective story. It’s uncommonly smart entertainment, lifted as literature by the way Taylor gradually increases the tension in the relationships between her protagonist, the stolid lawyer Francois Dubon, and both his wife and mistress. Domesticity is strained, politics are shaken, and it all evokes the sense an unstable new century about to begin.

Reinforcements

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 4:38 PM - 14 Comments

I finally got around to reading Patrick Deane’s installation address as President of McMaster University, which came highly recommended for its defense of the campus as a bastion of values more universal and durable than we usually read about in the morning papers. The whole speech is worth reading. Deane doesn’t just offer ringing endorsements of grand principles, but acknowledges that worthy goals can conflict. But I stopped short after the first sentence — “In 1975 I was an undergraduate at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg” — because it suggests a trend.

Deane is in fact South African. He came to Canada in 1978 as a grad student, the kind we are sometimes told will take “our” fancy education, paid with our tax dollars, and go home. He stayed. So have a growing number of Canadian university presidents who were born far abroad.

I’m most familiar with Amit Chakma from Bangladesh, who is already making an impression as Western’s new president. A few weeks ago Léo Charbonneau wrote about a bunch of others, including Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz at UPEI, Feridun Hamdullahpur at Waterloo, Mamdouh Shoukri at York and a relative veteran, Indira Samarasekera at the University of Alberta. Lesley Lovett-Doust, at Nipissing, is Scottish. Neil Turok, not quite a university president, is Canada’s most prominent advocate for higher education in his native Africa. One could go on and on.

I mention this for its own inherent interest and because we’ve got some fights coming up in Canada about whether our universities (and, yes, our tax dollars) are supposed to help us function in the world or reinforce our parochialism.

U.S. is more charitable than Canada: report

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 3:15 PM - 54 Comments

Charities would receive an extra $8 billion a year if Canadian taxpayers donated as much as their American neighbours, according to a new report from the Fraser Institute. It found that Americans give about 1.38 per cent of their income to charities, while Canadians donate only half that, about 0.73 per cent. Manitoba is the most generous province, with its residents giving an average of 0.94 per cent of their incomes, while residents of Utah, the most generous American state, gave away a full 3.2 per cent of their annual wealth.

CBC News

12 arrests made in the UK over suspicion of a terror attack

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 2:41 PM - 15 Comments

Twelve people have been arrested by counter-terrorism detectives in the UK due to fears of a Christmas bombing attack on British soil. According to police, the men, aged between 17 and 28, were held in Birmingham, Cardiff, London and Stoke-on-Trent on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism. After the arrests, police began searches at several properties, with detectives and forensic experts looking for evidence of materials that could be used to make bombs. The counter-terrorism operation targeting some of those arrested had been under way for some time, and is described as “significant”. The government’s assessment of the risk of a terrorist attack in the UK remains at “severe” ­ the second-highest level ­ meaning an incident is seen as highly likely.

Guardian

Overrated in 2010: the list

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 2:16 PM - 144 Comments

1. Gilles Duceppe. He didn’t dare run against Pauline Marois for the PQ leadership when the job was open; it is not clear he would win it if he faced serious competition from within the PQ caucus now; and sovereignist hawks like Jacques Parizeau who like his tough talk now, when a referendum is certain not to happen anytime soon, forget that he has always stood with the doves when holding a referendum was possible but risky. Sure, his Bloc continues to float well above the other parties in Quebec. But would it fare any worse if any other MP in his caucus replaced him as leader?

2. The long-form census as a vote-mover. “I’ve been mystified by Stephen Harper’s willingness to squander so much political capital on an issue as trivial as the long-form census,” Charles W. Moore wrote in the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal in August. (I’d give you a link but the one I had has expired.) At the time I found this incorrect for one reason: that to Harper, at least, scrapping the mandatory long-form census was far from trivial. But it’s now clear that the analysis, broadly shared by a lot of commentators, was wrong for a second reason: Harper wasn’t squandering any political capital. You can’t find any long-term damage to his party’s standings or the Conservative brand since Harper won this fight. (Because he did win it: the long-form census is dead and the integrity of its data set is compromised no matter what future governments do.) Continue…

North Korea witholds military retaliation to drills by South

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 1:57 PM - 2 Comments

Military drills carried out by South Korea elicited a muted response by the North, which had initially threatened “brutal consequences beyond imagination,” if the exercises went forward. The military operations took place on the South Korean island that was shelled by North Korea’s artillery last month, but Pyongyang dismissed them as “not worth reacting” to. Separately, North Korea also told New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who was in Pyongyang as a U.S. envoy, that it is ready to rejoin the so-called six-party diplomatic talks, and promised to return the remains of hundreds of U.S. troops killed during the Korean War.

New York Times

China signs $35bn in deals with Pakistan

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 20, 2010 at 1:47 PM - 1 Comment

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao promised $36 billion in economic deals to Pakistan on Sunday during an official visit to the country. The move represents an important signal to both India, to whom Beijing offered a much smaller $16 billion in deals, and the U.S., who considers Pakistan a key ally in the fight against terrorism and has until been the country’s foremost supplier of financial and military aid. The offer unveiled by Wen includes infrastructure projects that would economically integrate Pakistan with western China, providing Beijing with coveted land access to the Arabian Sea.

Financial Times