WikiLeaks' Assange has cables as “insurance”

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:51 PM - 30 Comments

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who leaked sensitive government cables that embarrassed governments around the world, claims he is in possession of documents that could damage Rupert Murdoch, CEO of powerful News Corp. “There are 504 U.S. embassy cables on one broadcasting organization and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp,” Assange told the New Statesman magazine. He said if something happens to him or his supporters, his “insurance” cables will be released. Murdoch’s right-wing Fox News has been particularly critical of Assange.

Independent

Will freedom for Conrad Black be short-lived?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:48 PM - 5 Comments

Former media mogul Conrad Black could eventually go back to prison, or a judge could set him free for good: a status hearing Thursday in Chicago could provide clues about actions U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve may take. Black is returning to court after losing his latest appeal against conviction on fraud and obstruction charges. He was released last year from a Florida prison while he appealed his conviction for defrauding Hollinger International Inc. investors. An appeals court in October reversed two of his fraud convictions, citing a ruling on “honest services” laws. At the same time, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let stand one fraud and one obstruction of justice conviction. The fraud conviction, the judges found, involved Black and others taking $600,000 and had nothing to do with honest services: It was, they said, theft. In light of these mixed successes, Judge St. Eve could either resentence Black on the retained convictions or allow him to stay free based on time served. Just what St. Eve will do Thursday isn’t clear.

Toronto Star

Obama appeals for unity at Tucson memorial

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:36 PM - 16 Comments

At the memorial for the six victims of Saturday’s shootings in Tucson, President Barack Obama conveyed the nation’s sympathies and confronted the polarizing divisions that many say have fueled and been fueled by violence. Addressing a capacity crowd at the University of Arizona, Obama eulogized the deceased while appealing for unity and calm. “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do,” said Obama, “it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” He congratulated Daniel Hernandez, Giffords’ intern who tended to her wounds amidst a hail of gunfire, possibly saving her life, as well as the individuals who disarmed Jared Lee Loughner as he was reloading his weapon. The crowd of 14,000 erupted in cheer when Obama reported that after visiting her in hospital, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords “opened her eyes for the first time.”

New York Times

YouTube

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:31 PM - 109 Comments

Mike Moffatt considers how much it would cost to increase the lithium levels in drinking water, and how much might be gained as a result.

The city of Toronto has 3.3 murders/100,000 people (Source).  A 30% reduction in this rate would lower it by 1 murder per year per 100,000 people.  If our rough back-of-the-envelope calculations are correct and the lithium carbonate method works like the Texas study suggests, $153,000 buys us one less murder.  That does not take into account the reductions in rapes, suicides, drug use or thefts.

Will it work?  I don’t know.  It seems like it would be worthy a pilot study or two. Although those levels of elemental lithium are believed to be safe, there may be side-effects we are not considering.  There are ethical considerations as well, but it is hard to make a case that adding fluoride to the water supply is ethical but lithium is not – and we’ve been adding fluoride to drinking water for over half a century.

Mitchel Raphael on three very important political wives

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

Harper draws the line
As the press gathered at 24 Sussex for Stephen Harper’s media Christmas party, there was buzz about whether the PM would perform as he did at the recent Conservative Christmas party (where he sang the Rolling Stones’ Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline). In one of the living rooms was a piano and a set of drums that had a red and white plastic popcorn box (available at Dollarama) attached to the side. When Capital Diary suggested Paparazzi by Lady Gaga might be an appropriate song, one bright PMO staffer jumped in with, “Yeah, in the meat dress,” referring to Lady Gaga’s infamous outfit at the MTV Video Music Awards. In the end, the PM just mingled. Laureen Harper noted there’s been pressure put on the PM to do more modern songs, but he’s resisted, preferring to keep it old school.

Continue…

Blaming banks for Madoff

By Erica Alini - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:20 PM - 2 Comments

Getty Images

The last few weeks of 2010 brought a flurry of new lawsuits against Wall Street’s heavy hitters, as lawyers for the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme raced against a Dec. 11 legal deadline marking two years since the financier’s arrest. Among the big names targeted in the fresh batch of lawsuits are JPMorgan Chase, UBS, HSBC, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch-Bank of America.

The banks have called the lawsuits “unfounded” and “utterly baseless.” But Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee who’s spearheading the effort to recoup defrauded investors’ money, says it’s Madoff’s financial activity that bore little resemblance to reality—and big banks should have known. The lawsuit against HSBC alleges the bank failed to notice that some of Madoff’s trades had been settled on a Saturday, when stock markets are closed, and that for three years his investor statements misnamed a fund in which he claimed to have put client money. HSBC did hire an independent auditor to look at Madoff’s deals, and the probes warned of possible shams and fraud. But the bank is accused of turning a deaf ear.

Continue…

Are the Golden Globes a joke? Film critic Brian Johnson thinks so.

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:01 PM - 2 Comments

She can't seem to get it right

By Josh Dehaas - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 1:00 PM - 1 Comment

Her political style, some suggest, just isn’t very ‘inspiring’ | Michael Sohn/AP

After four years spent deftly navigating a coalition government with her left-wing rivals, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally formed her “dream coalition” following the 2009 election. But just over a year into her new term, support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has sunk to 37 per cent, down 12 per cent since the election. “It’s a curious phenomenon,” says William Drozdiak, president of the American Council on Germany. “Especially considering Germany’s economy is doing quite well.”

It’s more than just a bit troubling for Merkel, especially since seven of Germany’s 16 states will elect regional representatives this year—votes that are considered a test of the chancellor’s leadership—and if the CDU flops, the party could oust her. According to Der Spiegel, if an election was held today, Merkel’s allies could lose all seven votes—even Baden-Württemberg, a state that the CDU has held since 1953.

Continue…

Here's a tip: slow down

By Erica Alini - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:40 PM - 1 Comment

Getty Images

Fast-food delivery can be a deadly business. In South Korea, accidents involving motorcycle delivery men topped 4,000 in the last five years (1,395 in 2009 alone), and fatal collisions, labour unions say, have probably reached into the double digits in the last decade. So the government is taking action: last week, it launched an advertising campaign to increase public awareness of the dangers. In addition to ads on radio and TV, the effort includes distributing leaflets citing delivery men injury rates to customers at the very restaurants and food chains that have made breakneck rides a staple of South Korea’s fast-food culture. “It’s not that I want to deliberately disobey traffic laws, but when you have customers breathing down your neck, it’s really hard not to,” delivery man Bang Chang-min told the L.A. Times. “When I’m on a bike, I’m under so much pressure that I feel I transform into somebody else.”

All this deadline pressure is why motorcycles zigzagging through traffic, running red lights and even driving on the sidewalk has become so common, say local activists. But the increasing number of injuries and recent death of a Pizza Hut delivery man is forcing South Koreans to reconsider whether receiving a perfectly hot pizza at their door is worth the cost.

Brazil mudslides and floods leave thousands homeless

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:40 PM - 2 Comments

Southeastern Brazil has been buried under a series of mudslides that have killed at least 370 people in the towns of Nova Friburgo, Teresopolis, and Petropolis. The death toll is expected to be much higher, but heavy rain is hampering the efforts of the 800 rescue workers deployed to help victims and recover bodies. The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral, has blamed local governments for failing to control illegal housing and overcrowding in the region’s slums. President Dilma Rouseff has called a state of emergency and has allocated $480 million in emergency aid.

BBC

Flowing from underground

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:40 PM - 1 Comment

Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Step one of 12 for addiction recovery is admitting you have a problem—something a growing number of Pakistanis are doing, despite the fact the country has been “dry” since 1977. Alcoholism is reportedly booming: addiction clinics cite a growing demand for counselling, an Alcoholics Anonymous group has popped up in Karachi, and one prominent addiction counsellor recently told the Guardian that of the 10 million Pakistanis who drink, one million have a problem.

Under Islamic law, the punishment for boozing in “the land of the pure” is 80 lashes. But that doesn’t stop smugglers from bringing vodka across the Chinese border, and whisky in on boats from Europe. The country’s only brewery, set up to serve non-Muslims, flourishes near Rawalpindi. Bootleggers will also deliver right to the home.

There have been efforts to overturn the alcohol ban. As recently as 2007, parliamentarians called on the government to relax the laws, arguing that prohibition was turning more people on to hard drugs, or forcing them underground to drink. For now, though, rising alcoholism and religious fundamentalism will continue to coexist.

United against austerity

By Erica Alini - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:20 PM - 0 Comments

John Kolesidis/Reuters

As Greece’s parliament approved an austerity budget on Dec. 23, trade union leaders vowed to continue the agitation that has roiled the debt-stricken country in the last year, promising more strikes in 2011. The budget, pushed through by socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou, administers more of the bitter medicine economists say is required for Greece to save itself from financial collapse: a pension freeze, health care spending cuts and new tax hikes.

Approving the new measures was essential for Greece to secure the next disbursement of a $144.5-billion bailout package by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. But the policies are driving a wedge between the government and the unions, which have traditionally been close to the socialists, and within the ruling party itself. Tensions are so high, in fact, that some cabinet members have reportedly stopped greeting each other. And many question whether the pain will actually produce any future gain, noting that with public debt projected to hit 160 per cent of GDP in 2013 and unemployment expected to rise to 14 per cent in 2011, a Greek default may be unavoidable.

Sorry guys, the party's over

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:00 PM - 1 Comment

Feng Li/AP

Sparked by public outrage over government corruption, Beijing has promised to crack down on excessive spending by government officials on overseas seminars and functions—expenses that cost Chinese taxpayers 400 billion yuan ($58 billion) a year. Speaking specifically about lavish parties—at some, revellers have reportedly died due to excessive drinking—Wu Yuliang, secretary-general of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, says the government is committed to eradicating “the extravagance and waste.”

Last year, 113,000 officials were punished for corruption, but only 4,300 cases were deemed worthy enough to be investigated for potential legal action. And critics have low expectations that the government’s anti-corruption plan, laid out last month in a 39-page report, will result in big changes. “If your leaders are already corrupt and you want those leaders to fight corruption, then in reality I don’t think this is sincere,” says human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Target buys Zellers leases from Hudson’s Bay Co.

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 11:48 AM - 48 Comments

Minneapolis-based retailer chain Target has purchased the leases of 220 Zellers store locations in Canada for $1.8 billion. Two cash payments of $912.5 million will be made in May and September of this year, and Target will convert 100 to 150 Zellers locations into Target stores, while selling off the remaining locations to other retailers. The purchase reportedly has its perks for the Canadian economy: It is expected to create jobs, Target will be investing $1 billion in revamping the store locations, and Hudson’s Bay Co. can now focus the Bay brand, having sold off an underperforming asset at a profit.

CBC

Oh, is that what happened?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 11:48 AM - 155 Comments

The Prime Minister explains how it was that a coalition government failed to replace his in December 2008.

Last time they waited too long and it was too late.

Mathematical fame

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

Those who’ve dreamed of being the next Pythagoras, but maybe aren’t so good at math, can now buy a theorem bearing their name: TheoryMine, a company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, is selling the naming rights to theorems (proven mathematical formulas) generated by software that can churn out an endless number of them. TheoryMine takes about a week to discover a new theorem, says Lucas Dixon, 31, director of software development. For £15 (about $24), customers get a certificate with their theorem.

So far, most customers are naming their theorems after individuals, although “we’re getting some fun ones, like the ‘Hairy Caterpillar theorem,’ ” Dixon says. It’s unlikely any will prove as useful as the Pythagorean theorem. “Most of the things that come out are not deep mathematical results,” he says. Still, “we’re guessing it might be a fun geek present.” The company just started in November, and it’s already sold over 700.

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 10:34 AM - 1 Comment

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of January 10th, 2011)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

'You can't tell my husband!'

By Rebecca Eckler - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 1 Comment

Some husbands ‘may notice something is different, but can’t put their fingers on it.’ So wives need to get creative | Getty Images; Istock; Reuters; Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute

Women have always kept secrets from men, whether it’s wearing double push-up bras, or sneaking new clothes into the house. But nowadays what they’re hiding is right on their faces. “Women hiding Botox from husbands happens every day,” says Dr. Romy Saibil, who co-owns the Toronto-based True Medi­Spa with Dr. Francine Gerstein. Both doctors have seen the lengths women go to hide treatments.“Women will bring their children with them and say, ‘I’m getting a needle,’ and will openly talk to friends about Botox,” says Saibil, “but when it comes to husbands they’ll come up with any excuse so they don’t find out.”

A lot of women, says Saibil, will time injections when they know their husbands will be away on business. “When their husbands don’t travel, we don’t see them as often,” she says. Even the receptionist at True MediSpa gets it. Women want to pay in all different ways so husbands don’t find out. They’ll say, “Half on Visa, a quarter on my debit card, and here’s some cash.” “Literally, our receptionist knows every bank in the area,” says Saibil. “She’ll be like, ‘Oh, you want a Scotiabank? Turn right. You’re a Royal Bank client? Go around the corner.’ ”

Continue…

Making commitments for the year ahead

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 6 Comments

Steve Russell/Toronto Star

How do you solve a problem like 2011? The coming year promises a great many daunting challenges for Canada and the world. Overcoming these obstacles will require fresh and innovative thinking. And Maclean’s is pleased to be a part of that process.

This issue features many stories that bring important new perspectives to current problems. In our cover story, National Editor Andrew Coyne tackles the great bugbear of modern urban living—traffic. With wit and logic, he parses the solutions on offer and finds his way to the inevitable conclusion that drivers must starting paying tolls if they want access to congestion-free roads. You may not look forward to such an outcome, but it’s impossible to dispute Coyne’s common sense route.

Similarly, Senior Writer Jason Kirby shines a light on what will eventually come to be seen as the most significant economic experiment of our generation: the austerity of British Prime Minister David Cameron versus the pump-priming of U.S. President Barack Obama. And Maclean’s award-winning investigative reporter Michael Friscolanti examines a little-known moral quandary at the heart of Canadian foreign policy—how much should the Canadian military pay for accidental deaths and destruction in Afghanistan?

Continue…

He's a swell boss

By Jason Kirby - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Sean Kilpatrick/CP

As part of their obligatory year-end coverage, reporters at QMI Agency, the newswire arm of Quebecor Media Inc., went looking for the top business person of the year. Lo and behold, after conducting a poll, they found none other than their own boss: Quebecor Chairman and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau. But while the optics of cheering on the guy who signs your cheques looks more than a little odd, there’s no question Péladeau put his stamp on the Canadian media and telecommunications scene in 2010.

In September, Vidéotron Ltée, the cable TV and Internet subsidiary of Quebecor Inc., launched a wireless network to take on the established giants in the industry: Telus, BCE and Rogers Communications (which owns this magazine.) The venture is off to a steady, albeit slow, start. In its first three months of operation, the wireless division added 492 new subscribers a day, according to reports, shy of the 675 analysts had predicted.

Continue…

An off day for a royal wedding?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 2 Comments

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Atlantic Canada: Despite having a higher than average interest in the British royal family, compared to most Canadians, Atlantic Canadians are the least likely to agree (19 per cent) that the April 29 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is worthy of a national holiday. On average, 27 per cent of Canadians think they should get the day off to celebrate.

Quebec: Nearly every Canadian (98 per cent) believes that drinking and driving is “unacceptable.” But in the past year, nearly one in four people drove a car at least once despite believing their blood-alcohol level was close to, or above, the legal limit (28 per cent said they drove after having one drink). Four per cent of Quebecers said they got behind the wheel “fairly often” when their levels were above or close to the legal limit.

Continue…

How the HST hit Alberta

By Colby Cosh - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 3 Comments

CP Images

Harmonized sales tax was one of the big political stories of 2010, causing angry murmurs in Ontario and leading to the political suicide of B.C.’s premier and opposition leader. One happy place, however, was spared the storm: Alberta doesn’t have a provincial sales tax (yet). When it comes to taxation, the number zero harmonizes with everything.

Late in the year, however, Alberta Finance Minister Ted Morton went public with concerns he had tried, and largely failed, to bring to the attention of his Ottawa analogue, Jim Flaherty. The HST applies to financial services, and while a few mutual funds are creating distinct HST-free products for non-harmonized markets, most are taking advantage of a rule that allows them to charge one “blended” rate to everybody regardless of domicile. In essence, Albertans who have climbed into investment pools with Ontarians are now covering part of those Ontarians’ provincial tax bill.

Morton wonders why financial services should be subject to HST at all. The whole point of the HST is to tax consumption efficiently and transparently, sparing savings and investment. Taxing the provision of investment advice and letting provincial rates be “blended” does seem to contradict this goal on all counts.

Hero-worshipping Lawrence of Arabia

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

He was the most important individual soldier of the First World War, a hero of mythic stature | Everett Collection/CP; S.W. Zwemer; Illustration by Taylor Shute

HERO: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
Michael Korda

In mid-1914, Thomas Edward Lawrence was a shy, short (five foot five) polyglot (French, German, Arabic, Turkish) British scholar and textbook Freudian neurotic—a masochist with an outsized Oedipal complex, the illegitimate son of an Anglo-Irish baronet who had run away with the family governess. Still only 25, he had already walked across 1,500 km of the Mideast, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and had deliberately inured himself to pain and deprivation, while honing his leadership skills. He was possessed of a sense of destiny, the exact shape of which must have seemed obscure even to him. It is impossible to guess how his life might have unfolded had events not conspired, in the form of the First World War, to provide him with a field of operation large enough for his charisma and his military genius.

Korda, 77, the former editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster, is a born hero-worshipper, and the author of earlier biographies of Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower. In Lawrence of Arabia, Korda has found a figure worthy of his absorbing, detail-rich style, one who exceeds his previous subjects in sheer personal drama and rivals Ike in historical importance. Lawrence became one of the greatest guerrilla leaders of all time, mastering the small (devastating raids on enemy railways) and the large: as Korda convincingly argues, if his hero’s Mideast mapmaking, respectful of ethnic territory and ancient trade routes, had been followed after the war, the region might not have become the bloody mess it is today.

It’s possible to quibble with one of Korda’s central themes: that the anonymous, meat-grinder nature of combat during the Great War means that only a single warrior remains instantly recognizable. Canadians do remember Billy Bishop, for one, and—if only because of Snoopy—the Red Baron is probably more famous to Americans than their own Sgt. York. But on a larger, worldwide stage, Korda proves himself correct: T.E. Lawrence was the most important individual soldier of the war, a hero of mythic stature whose accomplishments still reverberate in contemporary geopolitics.
- BRIAN BETHUNE

Continue…

'I believe we can be better'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 9:32 PM - 61 Comments

President Barack Obama’s remarks in Tucson this evening.

I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here – they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

That’s what I believe, in part because that’s what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

More from Tom Junod, Larry McMurtry and Andrew Sullivan.