Superb Murray sets up Nadal clash
A brilliant display by Andy Murray sees him beat Novak Djokovic for the first time to set-up a semi-final clash with Rafael Nadal in the Toronto Masters.
Engineers ‘had fears over plane’
Concerns had been raised about the safety of a Qantas jet that made an emergency landing with a hole in its fuselage.
Obama to meet UK PM on London visit
White House hopeful Barack Obama is to hold talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown after flying into London.
Senior ministers get behind Brown
Justice Secretary Jack Straw is the latest senior minister to back Gordon Brown, as critics step up pressure against the PM.
US man loses patience and gets shot of faulty lawn mower
A man in the US state of Wisconsin is arrested after shooting his lawn mower because it would not start.
Trans-fats banned in California
California becomes the first US state to ban trans-fats, chemically altered vegetable oils linked to heart disease.
‘Killing time’
Violence grips a Washington DC neighbourhood
Last-ditch Iraq talks on IOC ban
Iraq will hold talks with the International Olympic Committee aimed at reinstating athletes banned from Beijing.
Spears child custody deal agreed
Pop star Britney Spears and her former husband Kevin Federline reach a financial agreement in their child custody case.
Warning over blood-taking method
A UK expert has warned people who take blood not to allow patients to tightly clench their fists as it can confuse results.
Five die in Gaza City explosion
Four Hamas militants and a five-year-old girl die in an explosion targeting a car on Gaza City’s beachfront, medics say.
Hope of deal in world trade talks
Global trade talks that earlier looked near collapse have made progress and a deal might now be possible.
Unexpected fall in puffin numbers
The puffin population on England’s biggest colony falls by a third in five years, a survey shows.
Fresh clashes shake Lebanese city
Sectarian fighting breaks out between rival Lebanese factions in the northern city of Tripoli with one reported fatality.
Chad rebels release US missionary
Chadian rebels free an American missionary after holding him hostage for more than nine months, his organisation says.
Karadzic appeal deadline passes
A deadline expires for Bosnian Serb ex-leader Radovan Karadzic to appeal against extradition to The Hague on genocide charges.
Sprinter Powell eases to 100m win
Asafa Powell completes his pre-Olympic preparations with an impressive victory at the London Grand Prix.
Sudanese warning on peacekeepers
Sudan again warns it cannot be held responsible for the safety of UN troops in Darfur if its leader is prosecuted for war crimes.
Stones ditching EMI for Universal
Veteran rock group The Rolling Stones switch record labels, leaving EMI for Universal after more than three decades.
Week in pictures
Some of the most striking images in the world this week
Cyprus sets date for peace talks
Leaders from both sides of the divided island of Cyprus agree to launch reunification talks in early September, the UN says.
Money trouble
Why the weak dollar is hitting East Timor hard
US home foreclosures on the rise
The number of homes in some stage of being repossessed more than doubled in the three months to June, a report shows.
China paper censored for breach
A Chinese newspaper falls foul of the authorities by printing an image from the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
‘Serial bombs’ hit India’s IT hub
Seven bombs hit the southern Indian city of Bangalore within minutes of each other killing two people, police say.
UK warns of damage in TNK-BP row
The British Embassy in Moscow accuses the Russian shareholders of TNK-BP of using the state in their dispute with BP.
Attacks begin on net address flaw
Net firms urged to patch address flaw as attacks that exploit it circulate online.
Perilous position
When attack becomes defence in Helmand
Online queen
Rania of Jordan goes on YouTube to tackle stereotypes
Against the odds
Somali sprinter’s journey from war to the Olympics
Your say
What do you want the world to talk about?
What people who don’t have a vested interest in seeing John McCain become president have to say about Obama’s Berlin speech
As I posted earlier, Joe Scarborough is being a good little concern troll, as was David Gregory last night on Race to the White House:
…Richard Wolffe on Countdown:
and just about everyone else in the U.S. media.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the reception is far different. Der Spiegel:
Anyone who saw Barack Obama […]
Friday Cat Blogging, or My Life in Pictures
It’s kind of sad, knowing that the mundane details of your life are so predictable:
Meanwhile, back on the home front…
Remember the housing market disaster? How home prices are plummeting? You don’t hear much about that these days, do you. This morning, Joe Scarborough’s obsession is “Obama’s saccharine speech” in Germany. You know, the one I posted yesterday that was greeted by a huge crowd numbering in the hundreds of thousands. […]
Maybe it’s all just a way to free up jobs for men
At one point a number of years ago, when Mr. Brilliant was between jobs, he would refer to himself as an “unemployed bum.” I asked him the other day what an unemployed woman was, and he said “an unemployed bumette.” That didn’t ring quite right, and after a moment I realized that an […]
Well, what do you expect from supporters of a candidate who is allied with a president who thinks the Constitution is just a piece of paper?
I don’t know how Maha got through this entire post without vomiting all over the keyboard.
You know, I’ve been having some “Hey you damn kids, get off my lawn” moments recently myself, though at least mine have been in the context of actual kids and an actual lawn. In my case, said […]
No jelly doughnut he
For those who don’t remember what life before George W. Bush was like, this is what a president who is not despised by other citizens of the world will look like when he travels overseas:
That sound you hear is that of John McCain’s rotting teeth gnashing.
(h/t and more photos)
From the "Figure That Out All By Yourself, Einstein?" file
The head of my current (until August 29 or I find another job, which ever comes first) department has been on a terrorist watch list for years. Every time he flies, he has to go through extra screening. He has a common name; not “John Smith”, but something close to it. I […]
Women ignore John McCain’s record and history on women at their peril
The level of ignorance about John McCain that exists in the American public would be astounding if we weren’t hearing “war hero” and “great American” used every time McCain’s name is mentioned. Just how I had Morning Joe on for five minutes, and in a segment with Mort Zuckerman decrying the campaign’s placing of […]
I for one welcome our new feline overlords
In the future, we will all be like this woman. We will have no choice. They will have taken over.
Global warming could lead to more kittensBy Eoin O’Carroll | 07.23.08
“Each year it seems to get worse and worse,” said Christina Gin, an animal shelter volunteer in Hayward, Calif., to the Hayward Daily Review […]
This is what happens when women are not permitted to control their own reproductive destiny
This is what America will look like; the Republican version of utopia, after John McCain and the Republicans get their way of a society in which abortion is prosecuted as a crime, self-righteous doctors, nurses and pharmacists are allowed to impose their views on the public at large, and where low-income women have no access […]
